George Russell in Baku 2026 because this weekend was actually insane
Qualifying
Pole by 0.837s. Not just a big gap but the biggest in a fully dry F1 qualifying session in almost 34 years. The last bigger one was Nigel Mansell’s 0.859s at Suzuka in 1992. George missed that by literally 0.022s
He topped Q1, Q2 and Q3 and somehow still found another 0.936s between Q2 and Q3. He later said that 0.837s was the biggest qualifying advantage of his entire career, juniors included
He also became only the 7th driver in F1 history to take pole in Baku
Then the race happened
First Grand Slam of his career: pole, fastest lap, every single lap led and the win
And he won by 0.196s. Against Verstappen. That is the closest finish Baku has ever had and one of the 10 closest finishes in F1 history
Somehow it gets even crazier 0.196s is also the smallest winning margin for a Grand Slam in F1 history. The previous record was Alonso’s 0.293s in Singapore back in 2010
George became the 4th driver to win in Baku from pole after Rosberg in 2016, Bottas in 2019 and Verstappen in 2025. There have been 10 F1 races here and only four were won from P1
He became Baku’s 8th different F1 winner
Fastest lap: 1:44.916 on lap 49
Rosberg took the first ever Grand Slam in Baku in 2016 and won by 16.696s. George did it with a 0.196s gap. That is around 85 times smaller, which is honestly insane
And then there are the career highs
5 poles this season. A new personal best
3 wins this season. Also a new personal best
4 Azerbaijan GP podiums
3 Baku podiums in a row
And because apparently this weekend needed one more stat, he got the fastest pit stop of the race 2.33s
So basically
P1 in FP1
P1 in FP2
P2 in FP3
P1 in Q1
P1 in Q2
P1 in Q3
Pole
Led all 51 laps
Fastest lap
Win
All sectors purple
First career Grand Slam