Formula 1 raced on the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan, this past weekend. The track is a real challenge; it takes place on dusty city streets lined with concrete walls and through a medieval fortress gate, followed by a 1.4-mile (2.2 km) flat-out blast to the finish line. This year the race was held a day earlier than normal after F1 switched up its schedule to avoid clashing with Azerbaijan’s celebration of its recent war with Armenia.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli misjudged how much front grip he had going into turn 1, found more than expected, and clipped the corner of the wall with his left front tire. It happened in the first of the three knockout qualifying sessions, and while Antonelli had already banked a time good enough to proceed, the damage meant he would start the race from 16th. A few weeks ago, at Monza, he had started from 19th and won, but in Baku he would have a much tougher task.

By contrast, his teammate George Russell had the kind of weekend he probably expected to have a lot of in 2026. He was comfortably faster than anyone else on Friday in qualifying, setting pole by nearly a second from Charles Leclerc. Come the race, Russell led from start to finish, but it was almost a close-run thing at the very end; a turbocharger failure in the final laps allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to close to within two-tenths of a second by the checkered flag.

Red Bull’s V6 engine is the most powerful in the field, and both cars placed highly—Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar returned to the car for the first time since the summer break after injuring his hand, then out-qualified his four-time world champion teammate, following him home in the race for third place. Leclerc couldn’t hold onto any of the podium positions but did bring his car home.