For most of Saturday afternoon in Baku, George Russell had the race to himself. The Mercedes driver had built an 11-second cushion on pace no other car could match, and the closing laps looked like a formality.

Then Valtteri Bottas planted his car into the wall, out came a yellow flag, and Russell lifted. His turbo starved for boost. Max Verstappen filled his mirrors.

“When the yellow flag came out, I lifted off the power and when I went back, I had no turbo, so then I had no power and Max almost got me at the line,” Russell told reporters.

Verstappen crossed the line 0.196 seconds adrift after climbing from eighth on the grid, with Isack Hadjar making it a Red Bull double podium in third.

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“I was trying everything that I have available,” Verstappen said. “On the last lap because there was a yellow, I think George picked up a bit of boost lag, so he didn’t pull out of Turn 15 and that gave me a little bit more of an opportunity.”

Antonelli recovers from qualifying crash

Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari, splitting the Mercedes cars. Kimi Antonelli’s recovery drive delivered fifth: the championship leader had started 16th after a qualifying accident and picked his way through the pack, passing Lewis Hamilton with eight laps to go.

The race broke into thirds. Alex Albon buried his Williams into the barrier at Turn 6 for the first safety car. On the restart, Franco Colapinto locked up into Turn 1 and collected Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris, ending three cars’ races and bringing out the second safety car. Bottas’s late shunt triggered the yellow that closed everything up for the finish.

Antonelli vs Russell, not Verstappen

The title fight has narrowed to a two-way Mercedes affair. Antonelli leads Russell by 66 points, 302 to 236 after 17 rounds, with Russell trimming the gap by 15 in Baku. Verstappen sits sixth on 163, 139 behind Antonelli with eight rounds left. A maximum of 208 points is available across those weekends. The mathematical case survives; the practical one does not.

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Mercedes’ constructors’ lead has stretched to 160 points over Ferrari, who sit second on 378. McLaren are third on 306 and Red Bull fourth on 263.

Mercedes bringing upgrades to Sepang

Verstappen expects the gap to widen from here. Mercedes have new parts coming to the next race, and he did not sugarcoat what that means for Red Bull.

“They are obviously getting an upgrade next week in Malaysia, so this was the chance to win,” he told reporters. “And we’ve certainly done a great job messing up that chance.”

The championship heads straight to Sepang for the Bahrain Grand Prix on October 2-4, staged at the Malaysian circuit as a replacement for the postponed Middle East round. Singapore follows on October 9-11.

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