Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Oscar Piastri’s Baku misery has resurfaced again with the Australian losing a potential podium finish when he came off the track while George Russell went on to complete an immaculate triumph at a crash-riddled Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Australian, whose championship hopes began to fall apart last year when he crashed on the tight road circuit with which he’s had a “love-hate relationship”, this time locked up with third place within his grasp with 10 laps to go in Saturday’s race, sliding straight into the run-off.
By the time he got back into the race, he was lying 15th, his hopes of any points gone, and he ended up 14th, with McLaren suffering double woe after Lando Norris had earlier crashed out, the unwitting victim in a multiple crash caused by a Franco Colapinto error.
Up ahead, Russell, who led from start to finish and survived the pressure of two restarts under the safety car, held off Max Verstappen in a dramatic finish to win his first race for three months and cut into Mercedes’ teammate Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead.
Russell managed to defend from Verstappen, who charged through the field from eighth to second, despite his Mercedes losing power in the denouement as Valtteri Bottas’s last-lap crash in his Cadillac forced both the leaders to slow as the finish line approached.
At the end, Russell had less than two-tenths of a second to spare over the his old rival.
“I lost the boost, I had no power. Thought he was going to get us,” a relieved Russell said.
Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar was third in a superb return from injury.
Antonelli, who’d started 16th after a qualifying crash, ended up battling his way through to fifth as he limited the damage to his title lead, and is now 66 points ahead.
