LIVE: Azerbaijan Grand Prix Post-Race Show

Here we go, everyone. Not since Austria back in June had George Russell been able to find his way to the top step of the podium. But after 51 laps here at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan, the Mercedes driver took victory by the slimmest of margins over Max Verstappen. His third win of the season, eighth of his career, sees him bring the championship deficit to teammate Kimi Antonelli down to just 66 points. There was absolutely nothing in it between them at the line. After withstanding an immense amount of pressure, the English driver took that victory and celebrated deservingly with his Mercedes team. Capitalizing on a day when Kimi Antonelli faltered in qualifying, he did everything he needed to do and took home the win. Welcome to the paddock here. And guys, this post-race show is going to be a lot busier than we thought it was going to be. After the first half of that race, didn't seem like there was going to be much to break down. But the second half proved to be just as exciting as we're used to seeing here in Baku. I'd like to welcome the panel again. Alex Brundle, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Damon Hill. Guys, let's just start off with the top story here. George Russell, what a performance in a race where he sort of had to do it all. A Grand Prix of two halves for George Russell. Part of it was a dominant victory. And then, of course, everything thrown into all asunder by the safety car. And then he was on the defensive so much from Max Verstappen, who was absolutely flying today. Juan, that first part of the race, just utterly dominant from George. We saw that massive gap in qualifying. He was kind of putting that to good use in the first part of the race. How upset would he have been when that full safety car came out and closed the field back up? Well, for me, I think he started managing the gap at the beginning. And it was opening a little bit and a little bit. And you could see the Red Bulls coming. And I think they went on the radio and said, dude, we need to open a gap. We really need to open a gap. Because it's the only way to take the motivation away from Max. He needs to be far enough where Max goes, I can't. You either push and you're taking a tenth away and you've got 10 seconds, nothing to do. When you get the safety car, you know Max is going to jump on it. And you've got to say he did a really good job on both restarts. He really did. And Max jumped on it. And the second one, he didn't give a chance to Max. And it was so good. It was so good. And right there at the end, I thought, ooh, I think they're going to lose this. And David, with that safety car timing, pit stops were sort of erased. It was everyone was sort of on the same page after that. After that first restart, Max made up a place. That second restart, he was up again. What's George Russell's feeling when he realizes that? He knows how quick that Red Bull was. When he sees Max in his mirror, that's not going to be a good feeling. Yeah, I think he probably thought at some point, this is all going too well. And of course, something happened, safety car. And not only just one safety car, it was two safety cars. He dealt with the pressure. I think he's sufficiently smart, George. I think he calculated everything. He knew exactly what he had to do with restarts. And everything was judged really well, under pressure, massively at the end. There was a little wiggle at turn one. I saw a little bit of an understeer, a snap. But he held it together. Meanwhile, Max is behind them, just biffing the wall, just kissing the wall as he turned in for 16. He was up there on the limit. So we got a race for the flag at the end. But I think, I'm trying to remember a time when George was actually behind anyone this weekend. I think he basically was a clean sweep, wasn't it? Yeah, Max was up in quickest in FP3, but you're right. He was super, super quick, especially in qualifying. It's when the radio chatter hinge goes from, you know, maybe if we keep pushing, we can get a virtual safety car gap and still stay in the lead to, well, maybe if we keep pushing, we might be able to beat him by a tenth at the line. And that was the difference between the start and the beginning of the race. It did come all the way down to the last lap, a drag race to the finish. And in case you missed any of the action, let's take a look back at the highlights from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It is time for a Saturday afternoon Grand Prix. We're underway and racing on the streets of Baku. Good launch for Piastri, sends him to P2. George Russell maintains the lead. Max Verstappen diving to the inside of his old rival. The Red Bulls on the attack. And it's Hadjar in fourth. And now it's Verstappen. Lando Norris losing two positions. Big defence there from Charles Leclerc. It's Hadjar in third now. And Verstappen clearing another car. They are able to take places at will. Verstappen car behind. Loud and clear for Hadjar. No fighting between the two Red Bulls. They're with the wall. One lap's in concentration can change everything. Can I go for it or what? Gotta keep it clean. Albon in the Tech Pro. Full safety car is out on Baku City Circuit. The green flag flies to the inside. Goes Max Verstappen. Lock up for the Alpine to collide. Chaos on the restart. Up through goes Kimi Antonelli. He's in the right place at the right time. Oh, man. Oh, it's gone. Lock up for Oscar Piastri. And Hadjar goes through to the podium places. Verstappen extremely close. Oh, Verstappen hits the wall. And it's all the way to the line. George Russell wins the Grand Prix by a tenth of a second. That is an exam and then some. You know what? He passed it. Incredible pictures there as George Russell does his signature T pose atop his car. A well-deserved moment to enjoy as the fans flood the racetrack here. And guys, let's move on now to Red Bull. As impressive as Mercedes was all weekend long, George Russell in particular. Damon, you got to give Red Bull credit as well. They had a bit of an issue in qualifying with Max Verstappen. Hadjar did a great job. But both drivers in the race, incredible execution for a double podium. Incredible recovery from Isaac Hadjar to bounce back after his injury and being away. And they were a strong team. You can never discount Red Bull. They are an aggressive, attacking, racing team who take chances. They're always fighting for things. And they're incredible. I mean, you have to say they've been through so many different iterations of management and goodness knows what. But they're still there fighting. And Juan, we talk about playing a good team game. It was an interesting discussion early in the race. Max let by mid-race. Hadjar had the pace over Verstappen. Didn't get the same treatment. And ultimately, it benefits Max in the end. How did you kind of read that whole situation? Well, at that point, it made sense to let Max go because he seemed to be quicker. But I think Max started struggling with the tires. So at that point, it would have made more sense to let Hadjar go by again and give it a go. Because then if you pass Oscar early enough, then you might have had a shot. You know what I mean? Maybe it would have been different than the end result because then you might get two restarts, two goes at George and a restart. And the crazy thing is like, you know, they went to Hadjar and they said to Hadjar, hey, we're just focusing the fastest race and we need to let Max go because he's quicker. But when it was the other way around, it's like, but something that I liked is they told Hadjar is just race clean. They didn't say stay, just say race clean. That I thought it was quite, I was like, wow, that's new. The complication was the medium was clearly working nowhere near as well as the soft. And they were on split strategies, weren't they, between the two of them. But this way or that way, I think Max would have ended up generously ahead of Hadjar at the end of the race. And as it played out, I think he probably would have passed him pretty quickly when he was on the soft tire. But Hadjar really had an exceptional comeback today and has earned himself some good teammate points for playing the game and demonstrated amazing pace this weekend. If you want to have a comeback from an injury with a new contract in your hands, that's the one to have and thoroughly deserve the podium. In fact, as a pair of drivers, the best in the field today. And I liked in his interview in Parc Fermé, he sort of says, kind of my first podium on merit. Obviously he got that podium for Red Bull in Monaco. Penalties were involved in that. And this was very much on merit. It was an incredible drive. And Alex, you and I were talking during the race. This was kind of a quintessentially Max Verstappen event, wasn't it? Started further back, picked off the competition and was right there at the end, even hitting the wall the last few laps, trying to open up 16 for the run. I mean, put yourself in the Mercedes, right? You've put it on pole by eight tenths. You've disappeared at the start of the race. You've got a couple of safety cars. And then it was just so Max Verstappen, wasn't it? That he'd end up on the right tire, that he'd get the restart right, that he'd make a move and then won't go away behind George Russell. It's just relentless. Absolutely relentless. And then almost gets him at the line having to pass the caddy in the wall. So having a stalker. Not that I've had a stalker, but anyway. You know, you're right, he won't go away. You know, you could put money on the fact that he's okay, where was he? On the grid eights or something? You know he's going to be up there. It just happens. Something that he did, when Max did it, is I think what we all expected Antonelli to do today. And it was very different. But they had the straight line speed that I expected Antonelli to have as well. Yeah, and they complained about it. They said, you know, we're just lacking top speed and we're maximizing our car on base of our drag and then we go to the race and they're like, blowing by people. And you've got to say, you know, incredible credit's got to go to Red Bull Powertrains because they've taken on some mighty names and they've done it themselves. They're not Honda, they're not Mercedes, they're Red Bull Powertrains. They're completely standalone units. So, very impressive. And if you ask the FIA, it's the best one on the grid. Damon, in your day, did you ever have someone in the field that was operating at the level that we're seeing Max operate at? Even without the best car, he just never misses an opportunity to capitalize, does he? Let me think. Antonsen and Nijmegen or Alan Frost. Oh, this was just commonplace. Yeah, I'm trying to think. Michael Schumacher. And some reasonably good drivers in Formula One over the years, haven't they? I guess that's why it's the pinnacle of motorsports. Amazing. All right, well, look, again, there's still plenty of info to get caught up on. Things to break down. We'll be right back with more analysis after a brief stop. So, let's have a look at the Drivers' Championship after round 15. And we find Kimi Antonelli at the top, but his lead has been cut to 66 points. Lewis Hamilton in third. And then it is Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen scoring 18 points today. And the top 10 completed by Piastri, Hajar, Lawson and Pierre Gasly. We journey to the second page, which begins with Arvid Lindblad, who's got some explaining to do, but he has points under his arm after his result today. And it's Colopinto, Behrmann, back in the points. Bortoletto is 14th and it's Hülkenberg. Ocon, tough weekend for him, but he came away with some points. P16, then it's Sainz-Alban, Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda. The final three chasing their first points finish of the season. Straight to the constructors we go. No hanging around. Mercedes still at the top on 538 points. And then it is Ferrari on 378. McLaren on 306. Then it's Red Bull Racing Bulls are getting six points on Alpine. Didn't look like that was gonna happen at quite a lot of the Grand Prix, to be honest. And then it's Alpine Haas, Audi, Williams, Aston and Cadillac. Well, that is a fine sight. And the racetrack that unfolds underneath it gave us quite the spectacle at the end of the race. Chaotic restarts and a great battle from the top two. It's been an Azerbaijan Grand Prix to remember. The sun is now setting over the Baku city circuit. The city of wind, as it's known. McLaren wind did play a factor throughout the weekend. And this race, again, an absolute blinder at the end. Started off a little slow, but it really did come to a thrilling finish. And it was not without incident mid race. That was really all turned on its head when that first safety car came out for Alex Alvon, I believe in the tires. And then the restarts were chaotic to say the least. That first one, a little bit of teammate on teammate incident there, Juan Pablo, the Alpine drivers getting together, Franco Colopinto coming from way too far back, locking up and not the best way to end your race. Well, it's hard because everybody breaks. So it looked like everybody breaks so early. I think the thing is when you have a reference and you come in from, I don't know, 320, 330 kilometers an hour, and you're breaking the 120, you expect coming at 200, you're going to break in the 80. And I think he expected everybody to go pretty deep. The problem is when you're so far back is like a traffic jam, everybody backs off and backs off. And you see he breaks and he's going to run over somebody. So he gets out of the way and gets to the inside and he nearly stopped the car. It wasn't like he, yes, he made a mistake and ran over the teammate and he took Lando out as well. I mean, he made a mistake, but it was close. He was like, oh, nearly, nearly, nearly. He nearly got away with it. But crucially, he did not. Like you say, his teammate, Pierre Gasly and the McLaren driver, Lando Norris, also caught up in that incident. Let's hear now from all three drivers post-race. Hard luck, Francois. Just talk me through that kind of that moment. What was going through your mind, obviously, when you started locking up? Yeah, just a bit of disappointment. Very sad for the team. Just a big sorry to all of them, to the factory, to Pierre, of course. Took him out. So yeah, really disappointed. We're both in a good position to score points. So it was a big day for the team. And yeah, did a big mistake. So again, just, you know, big sorry. It shouldn't happen. And I was locking up and completely out of control. So not a lot I could do. So yeah, we move on to the next one and try to score points again. Hard luck, Francois. So sorry, Pierre, how do you kind of put into words how much it hurts, given there was such a big point score on the line today? Yeah. I don't think I really have words and I don't need the words now. I mean, we'll manage it together as a team. And yeah, I mean, I'm obviously very disappointed for all the guys and, you know, P7 and P10 was a very good race, good pace. Honestly, I have no idea how to answer your question. It's just, yeah, I've got to move on. Obviously, the pace of the car has been so strong this weekend in a title battle with racing bulls. These kind of results can be defining, can't they, when you're trying to get that position? So when you kind of look going forward, can you take some hope still that the pace of the car has been good? Yeah, I mean, the car, honestly, this weekend's been feeling amazing. So I'm very happy, even in the race, you know, looking back, I was quite close to Luis. Then I was three seconds behind Lando, keeping up with them. I think we had 15 seconds margin with the rest of the midfield. So, no, I mean, it was, you know, I was in the car. I saw the gap. I was like, I don't know why I felt, even if it was everything under control, I knew somehow something was going to happen. And safety car, I needed last week, didn't happen. Unfortunately, it happened this weekend. It ruined our chances. But as you said, we'll just move on and keep the good pace. Hard luck, thanks, Pierre. Lando, it just looked like a little bit of a slog out there. It was odd that you didn't really seem to have any pace. I know you didn't feel that comfortable with the car, or there was something wrong with it yesterday. Just how tough was it out there? Yeah, very. I just was just slow. Yeah, just struggling a lot in the straights. I mean, you saw how quickly everyone came past me. So, just an impossible race out there for me from that side and straight line speed today. So, hopefully we get that fixed for next time. But otherwise, you know, I still made the mistake and in the end of the day, I just got taken out. So, just some drivers that shouldn't be in Formula One, to be honest. Yeah, it was tough. Tough, obviously, with the way the race ended. I know it's early days, but can you kind of reflect on this weekend? And there are some positives, aren't they, with the case once that gets fixed for the car in terms of performance? I'm sure. I mean, we could have won, well, we won two and should have won three of the last four races. So, plenty of positives. Obviously, not this year again. Not quick enough, but we knew that. So, I just hope, well, we're going to be in for another tough few weekends, I imagine. But maybe Malaysia is a better one for us. Hard luck, Lando. Thanks. Already eyes forward to Malaysia for Lando Norris. Some interesting comments there in the pen. We'll cover McLaren in a moment. Want to touch back quick on Alpine Pierre Gasly. I mean, Damon, he just didn't even have the words to really explain how disappointed he was. When you're a sitting duck, you have no, you know, you mind your own business and boom. And then it turns out it's your teammate. You know you're going to go back to a garage, which is very depressed. And this is motor racing. This is sport, you know? We go up, we go down, you got to bounce back. It's a situation where Franco, you know, admittedly took blame, which, I mean, you kind of had to. There's no real defense in that one. Does it make it any better? It's so tough when teammates come together, getting back in the garage, getting back in that engineering office. Does it at least help that he kind of put his hand up and took the responsibility? Look, you got to push on. I remember the driver who's still leading the world championship doing a very, very similar thing in his early stages of a Formula One career and clattering into the side, for example, of Max Verstappen. We've all done it at some point. You get in deep, you've got cold brakes. Have you never done it? Oh yeah, probably nothing I have, actually. I've definitely done it. I would never do such a thing. No, never, never. You get in there deep, that's racing. Ambience cooled off a little bit. But he's also correct to hold his hands up. And sometimes you've got to say, look, I got in too deep. I made a mistake. You apologize to everyone in the garage once, and then you get on with your life. Yeah, the hard thing there is you're aggressive. You see an opportunity, and you've got to admire. For me, I admire people that try. When you have a restart, they see it as an opportunity. Some people, the restart, see it as like, I don't want to lose a position. And Franco's the guy that wants to go and take it. And when you're always the guy like Max, I always see an opportunity to take it, you're going to make mistakes. Ends up being a tough weekend for Alpino on what could have been a huge scoring weekend. Likewise, McLaren really just did not go well for them. After a really strong showing in qualifying, all goes wrong in the race. He saw Norris cut up in that incident. And then Oscar Piastri, under pressure, big lockup into turn one, throws away a podium position. Disappointing run for him. Yeah, it's quite strange how we see so many of these kind of problems with braking into turn one and turn five, places like that. I mean, it seems to be catching people out. The level of grip and maybe the temperature drop off or whatever, they can't seem to be able to find their braking point or get confidence in the brakes. But anyway, he was racing and he just locked up. And that's, like you say, McLaren have had a bad weekend. Yeah, something with the brakes, you've got to remember when you start the braking, you're recovering. You're really not using the rear brakes. And halfway through the braking, the rear brakes turn on. So that feeling changes and how the car decelerates changes. And if something gets a little wrong or out of sync, it's because the lockup is not like, oh, I lock up a little bit. It looked like he missed the braking by 30 meters and he, not normal. It's always been specifically a problem here in Baku is where you get a massive variance of brake temperature, two safety cars in a row. It's pretty much worst case scenario. I think it's a real shame for Piastri. In the first stint, he looked like the only one who could vaguely hang with George Russell. Actually, without the straight line speed, he had clear pace, for example, over his teammate Lando Norris. He was having a bit of an off weekend, it must be said. And yeah, I think that Piastri was having a great Grand Prix up until then, but one moment can put you out of the running. Yeah, and that upgraded McLaren. Lando still complaining of that straight line speed loss that he had in qualifying as well in the race. And further back in that same incident, that same restart, the Racing Bulls teammates also got together. Here's on board from Lindblad. I think these incidents are actually subtly connected because what you've got there is Ocon seeing it play out up the road and he checks up a little bit on the way into turn one. And actually what you've got is Lindblad trying to miss him and then hitting the side of his teammate and you don't want to let him off, James. You're a racing driver, you know it's going to be chaos turn one and people are going to do stupid things and they're going to put themselves in, you know. So you give yourself a little bit of a gap maybe. No, you take advantage of it. I knew he'd say that. I love it. Well, okay. Sometimes the catastrophe is lurking, isn't it? Every time you do that. You can intimidate people. If you're Max, people look behind and go, oh no, he's going to go for it. You know that. So people sometimes give him a bit of a gap. But, you know, if you just keep your nose clean, you're in the race, you know? There's a reason for it, but it doesn't mean it's not his fault, does it? You know, it's still his fault for not anticipating what's going on ahead of him. Oh, the squeeze one where you get in between like he just did. No, he can't go anywhere. Yeah, because Lawson's trying to avoid the crash and he's coming down, Ocon's coming up and you're in the middle, you're in the middle of the sandwich. But that's why when you dive bomb somebody or start like that, you need to make sure you get there all the way. You don't miss the corner, but you get it all the way so they can't turn. Right, and the innocent bystander and all that was Liam Lawson. Let's hear what he had to say afterwards. Hey, Liam. Well, obviously, Camille's race has not been able to get some points today. Defining moment was that moment with your teammate, Arvid. Just talk me through your view of that and reaction to that. I mean, I need to watch it, but I mean, we're all coming into turn one on the restart and I just got smoked from my left, put a hole in my floor as well, so I don't really know what gap he was looking for. In the middle of both of us going into turn one, I just don't understand it, but yeah, obviously, great points for the team. But yeah, sucks for our race. I haven't seen it, bro, but should we go down the middle or? I mean, it was just a really, you know, composed race, so it was pretty close. Yeah, we'll finish now. If I can just grab you back, just in terms of, like you said, great points for the team. I know it wasn't you scoring them, but when Alpine didn't score as well, important, isn't it, in that battle for P5? It is, it is really important. I mean, we got very lucky today. They were much quicker than us, so they have been all weekends. We need to try and turn it around next week. All right, thanks, Liam. Thank you. You got to imagine the Racing Bulls PR person there, not wanting that conversation necessarily to happen in the middle of a media pen with all those cameras and microphones, but Arvid Lindblad seemingly taking responsibility, sort of explaining the situation. And if you're Lawson, when you get back to the garage, yeah, you're out of the race, but, you know, at least it's not your fault, right? And you can shrug to the team and you can say, hey, you know, I got taken out of the race. It's not the best solution. It's not the result we wanted, but, you know, you can point it across the garage. Yes, you can. And look, right behind us, you can see Arianna Bravo talking to your race winner. We'll get that interview to you guys a little bit later. But we heard Liam Lawson mention that good points for the team. That was scored by Arvid Lindblad, and that went all the way up to the line. The drag race, that wasn't to be for George Russell and Max Verstappen. It was for Lindblad, who just got Ocon at the last minute here. Juan, what a great run to get P7 for him. I love this place, and I thought that's just how the race was going to finish. When they got that, you know, the end of the race, I thought, oh, here comes Max. And it's pretty cool that you can race to the line. This is so different than any other race. It's like, you normally come out of the last corner, and you're, oh, home free. Here, you come out of the last corner, and you look in the mirror, and you go, please go, please go, please go. It's kind of like some of the oval tracks back in the state of Indianapolis. You know, Talladega, they put the start-finish line way further down the front straight to set up situations just like that. Is the team going to be relieved that Lindblad was able to salvage something after what happened earlier? Oh, yeah, massively, yeah. I mean, they could have had both cars out, couldn't they? But yeah, so they recovered something, but they lost something in the process. I have to say, you know, Liam, he's in the walls the whole time, isn't he? And also, he's looking over his shoulder. He's just left Red Bull, and now he's back and done an amazing weekend. So, you know, psychologically, there's a lot to take in in Formula One as a driver. He's hoping to bounce back. As I said, you know, you've got to go to the next race and get a good result there. That's all you can do at this point, right? All you can do at this point. Still lots to come here on F1 TV in the post-race show. Do not go anywhere. We'll be right back and eventually hearing from our winner, George Russell. And if you're watching on F1 TV, here's a teaser of the latest Beyond the Grid episode with Yuki Tsunoda speaking to Tom Clarkson. How tough was 2025 for you? What were your biggest learnings? Definitely 2025 was the toughest year in my career, and I learned, like, loads, heaps of things. About racing? As a human. I was going to say, about racing or about you, but as a human? Both, both, literally both. Like, I probably told in this Beyond the Grid podcast last time, like, as soon as I had good food or whatever, I was able to reset myself between the race week, but I started to really struggle even that towards second half of the season, especially, that somehow when I came back to my house, I just, I felt very exhausted and just the race just keeps going and going and going. I have so much up and down. Not really enjoying the driving formula one much, probably. Outside of racing, try to solve those issues, right? What can I do to help that? And normally it's friends, but, you know, mostly friends in Japan and, okay, this is something that I have to resolve myself. It was a pretty tough time, but at the same time, something that gave me opportunity to look myself through a lot more than any other years. I thought confidence was there, but some race I just somehow lost the confidence. I just, I still don't understand about the car, to be honest. Back down here in the paddock at Baku, as we continue to break down all the happenings of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and one of the big stories, guys, coming into the weekend was the Williams team finally bringing those upgrades to the car, Damon, and a lot was riding on it. As much as they tried to downplay it, impressive performance in qualifying, even with Sainz's penalty, ultimately he was able to reward them with points. They must be pretty pleased. Yeah, at the cost of one of the other cars, it was already in the points. So, yeah, I mean, ups and downs again at Williams. The car, at least, has got some pace, or a bit more pace, which is very important, but they need to solidify results now. Bit of luck that Carlos managed to get back in the points. He wasn't making much progress through the field. And Juan, do we think there's still more performance to come out of this package? Can we maybe see another step in Malaysia? I think they're going to learn and understand how the car needs to be run and everything, but, you know, when the change is mainly the chassis, it just, all the bad habits are going to go away. Like, whatever feels horrible is going to feel a little better, and they have a little bit of downforce improvement as well. I think what they really need, personally, I would try to get a step on aero, just to keep finding the right direction, because a lot of times, you know, it seems like they find something, and they go, okay, now we're going to move to next year, and they kind of struggle to find their feet, and so it's like, do you need to end up with a better base for next year? You know what I mean? I don't know, that's the way I look at it. And Sepang, a very different racetrack than here, so it'll be interesting to see if that competitiveness carries on. Yeah, but I think, actually, a weight reduction will help more in Sepang than it helps here. What they won't have is an advantage of the Mercedes engine, which was a clear advantage this weekend. Can we talk about Haas-Hinch? Let's talk about it. Because they had an amazing race, two cars in the points, and when I see Lindblad drag past Ocon, my overarching thought is, what's Ocon doing up there? It was a brilliant Grand Prix, wasn't it? It was, it was. You say double points for them, Ocon P8, Bearman P9. No points, though, for Audi, another team that brought a lot of upgrades. Even with all the attrition, not able to get points, that's got to be a disappointing one for Alan McNish and that squad. Yeah, I think they were scratching their heads, because I think they thought they were going to make a step forward. So with upgrades, it quite often means that they don't automatically work. They have to go away and see how they're affecting the car, because the things that they've applied to their other model now don't work. So they have to start again and learn it about this new upgrade. So we'll see how they progress with that. Yeah, the problem with the upgrades is when they don't work, then you get a lot of people scratching your heads, and then you start wondering, where did we miss it? So you need to go, you know, they're going to go, I think Malaysia's going to be a good track, high-speed corners, everything. And if the car doesn't perform there, they're going to go, ooh, where do we, like, do we need to start taking pieces back and see where we got lost? I'm interested what they really do say post-race, because I spoke to Alan McNish on the grid, and he said, no, no, the upgrades were working, the car had pace early in the weekend, they had yellow flags in qualifying, they had sort of reasons, I don't want to say excuses, they had reasons for where they started, but the pace really just didn't show up in the race. I think what we've been seeing throughout this year is Audi execute very well as a race team. You often see the two drivers on the grid, just at the back end of the top 10, very close together. You've got Bortoletto, who I think is mega, is mega in Formula 2 and is continuing to be. Hulkenberg, who we've seen deliver these silky, smooth laps. And I think that actually, here, the limitations of the Audi PU, which is a relatively new product, has held them back in terms of their performance, but later on in the year, we'll see that slick execution again. And maybe we'll see more of the benefit of the aerodynamic upgrades. 14 separate upgrades, new nose, new tail, new everything, basically, it could easily be. Remember, Aston Martin, a couple of years ago, they were bringing the upgrades, they could see the upgrades on the numbers, but it wasn't reflecting lap time. So that's, it's not a fun position to be in. Close, but no cigar. Hulkenberg, P11, and Gabriel Bortoletto, actually, under investigation for a yellow flag infringement, excuse me, no word yet on the outcome of that. Okay, you saw it happening in the background, Ariana Bravo catching up with our race winner, George Russell, here's that chat. George, congratulations on an absolutely stunning performance there in that race. Let's start with the race finish, because we were all forgetting to breathe. How were you in the car there? Yeah, I mean, somebody just said, like, I wonder if it's ever happened before that the gap was bigger in quality than it was at the end of the race. But, you know, it was an incredible final, 10 laps with Max, so I could feel him sort of breathing down my neck, and he was pushing so hard. And then it was like quali lap, one after another, but then I saw the yellow flag backed off, and then when I went back on the power, my turbo stopped spinning, and I had no power, and suddenly that gap went from 1.5 to 2 tenths. Yeah, it was quite something, George, and I mean, you really didn't put a foot wrong, and you haven't this whole weekend. You've looked so strong. How important has this weekend been for you in terms of a confidence boost and keeping that momentum going that you've had since summer break? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I feel myself again, everything's coming a bit more intuitively, and I'm achieving what I wanted to achieve in terms of some things on the data. So, you know, in Formula One, it's so tough. We can't practice between the races, so if you want to try something different, you've got to try it during qualifying sessions and races, and it's almost like one step back to go two steps forward, and I sort of finally feel on that two steps forward path. And that championship battle, the fight's really on now, isn't it? I'm not sure we can call it a battle yet because it hasn't really been much of a battle, but I'm just going to go race by race and see where it takes me. Well done today, George. Congratulations. Thank you, Ariana, for chatting to George Russell, our race winner, and Damon, a huge swing in points. I mean, 15 points to George Russell. Kimi did a good job recovering. Again, he benefited from a lot of that carnage on the restarts. He didn't cut his way through the field we were expecting, but with that 15-point swing, could this be, once again, two years in a row, the weekend when the momentum starts shifting the other direction? I haven't got a crystal ball, but I think this was a little bit of a dropout weekend for Kimi, which is unusual. We've seen him usually this season delivering superlative performances with, and if he's had bad luck like Monza, he's managed to recover. So not so much of a massive recovery. 15 points is not as much as 25, but if he gets another 15 in the next race, then that could be interesting. Yeah, the hard thing is, we're going to Malaysia, new track, and if he can make a dent there, then we go to a street course that, again, you hit the wall, you make a mistake, and it's- That George has won at before. Exactly. So, I don't know. It's crazy because momentum is everything. And you can say, okay, no, no, no, you know what I mean? We're just careful today. But at some point, he was still pushing to try to get to Charles, and he wasn't really making a lot of progress. And if you look at his pace, it was about four tenths to a half second a lap slower. I know George was fighting for a win and going 10-10, but I don't know. I don't know. For me, it just looked like it was a little off this week. And I think they were so concerned. You know, he always talked about, you know, we need to stay grounded and we need to do this, and you need to stop thinking. Just go. It's still 66 points between them. I think Antonelli was very conservative today. When you look at the start of the race, you've got a long run into, well, a short run, but into a big braking zone and several of them. And I watched him sort of follow the field in to turn seven and turn eight like he had a lot of certainty that he was going to be able to catch and pass the rest of the pack through the race. I thought he might get to Leclerc at the end with a little bit more speed. But I think actually the conservative start put him out of position in terms of a track position. Then there was just a little bit too much to do. But that's a driver who knows he's got a buffer driving out there. Yeah, he had a three Grand Prix buffer. Now he doesn't anymore. It's going down. Don't go anywhere. Coming up, we're going to actually preview the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. A track all the drivers love heading back to Sepang in one week's time. This is the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Grand Prix is go! Instant launch off the line for Piastri with Russell getting close to him. Formula One returns to Sepang, her fan favourite circuit. Oscar Piastri wins! Yeah, mega weekend, everyone. Mega. Well done, mate. Well done. It's going to be one hell of a party tonight. The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia is coming up. So let's take a look at that weekend schedule as we head back to Sepang, the circuit the drivers love so much just outside of Kuala Lumpur. We're going to kick the weekend off, as always, 4.30 on Thursday for your weekend warm up before we head into a typical Friday. FP1 and FP2 at 12.10 and 3.40 local respectively. All in the build up for the go fast day. Saturday practice is going to be at 12.10 for FP3 into your qualifying hour, kicking off at 4 p.m. local time. Pre and post qualifying shows always a feature here on F1 TV. And then, of course, on Sunday, October 4th, the big show, the Formula One Golf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Free race show kicks off at 1.50, lights out at 3. And please stick around for breaking down all the action that we see on what's sure to be a hot and exciting race in Sepang. And if you're not watching on F1 TV, you could be and you should be. Make sure to scan the QR code on your screen to watch along with all the extra programming and features that we have on F1 TV. You're not going to want to miss it. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is in the books, and that means that already all the teams and drivers are starting to put focus to next week as we head back to Malaysia for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, making up for the race that was missed earlier in the year. It's a return to the Sepang circuit that originally appeared on the calendar back in 1999, which means both Damon and Juan have been to this racetrack. Damon, you were saying a bit of a short weekend for you. Yeah, I didn't actually race. I got as far as turn one and then what we saw happen today happened to me. And the funny thing was I spent about an hour in a very cold room with wet overalls to try and keep my temperature down. So I never did the race, so I never warmed up. So when I was interviewed on the way back, I literally was chattering. My teeth were chattering, I was so cold. It wasn't a teammate that took you out, was it? I don't think so. Okay, all right, that's better. It was someone else. It wasn't me though. So Juan, having finished a Grand Prix there, I mean, Damon talked about the heat. We know there's long, fast corners. It is a physical racetrack, isn't it? It is a physical, but it's more the heat. The heat, people that are battled by the heat, they're going to struggle there. Like, it's going to be hard. And I think what's going to be cool is you've got so many long straights that where you deploy will make a difference. You know what I mean? It's like, if you deploy in A, then B, you're going to, it's like, and as we see, you know, when they don't do a sprint race, people end up with different strategies. So it's going to be really cool to see what happens and who's happy in those first lap with the button. Malaysia, then Singapore, then Texas. Man, I hope they bought their electrolytes for the next couple of weeks because it's a physical phase of the season. That type of track layout, Alex, what car do you think it's going to suit the best? Oh man, it's so hard to tell. I'm so excited we're going back there. It's a throwback. But I think the Red Bull is going to be decent. Maybe the McLaren back in form, but I don't know. It doesn't seem like these upgrades are that great. Mercedes, you can never count out anywhere there's a long straight. So I think in Malaysia, you're going to be looking at a Mercedes strong again, and then back to Singapore where I think the Ferrari might come back into its own in those slow corners. Well, it's going to be interesting to see what happens going back to a racetrack we haven't been to for some time. But again, thank you all for tuning in and watching the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, an exceptional drive from George Russell under immense pressure in the dying laps. Close as that gap on teammate Kimi Antonelli to just 66 points. The championship is still very much alive. Join us next week for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Thanks so much for watching. Next time in Formula 1. And the Grand Prix is underway. Instant launch off the line for Piastri. What a place to go motor racing. I love a Lakeland. We are looking forward to this one.