George Russell said the Formula One season was entering "crunch time" after he closed the gap to Kimi Antonelli in the Drivers' Championship at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

Russell claimed his first race win since June's Austrian Grand Prix, fighting off a late charge from Max Verstappen to take the chequered flag by 0.1 seconds. 

The Brit helped Mercedes claim their first win around Baku since 2019 with Valtteri Bottas, though it was his incident at the end of the race that almost cost Russell the victory. 

Bottas crashed into the barriers on the final lap, allowing Verstappen to close the gap to Russell, but he was able to hold his nerve and pip the Dutchman to the finish line. 

More importantly, Russell closed the gap to Antonelli in the Drivers' Championship standings to 66 points, with the Italian coming home in fifth after starting 16th on the grid.

It capped a dominant and morale-boosting weekend in Baku for Russell, who insisted he remained focused on himself and not the title race with eight races left to go this season. 

"Win every race. That's the game plan," Russell said about what his plan was for the rest of the season. 

"My team-mate's had an incredible season; he's been pretty flawless throughout, but now we're getting to crunch time. I'm just going to focus on myself.

"If I continue giving performances like I did this weekend, at the end of the season I'll be happy because it's been a tough period, and I'll feel like I've come through the other side."

OUR BAKU WINNER pic.twitter.com/XePrgHIxkj

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) September 26, 2026

Russell had led comfortably throughout the race until an incident involving Alex Albon on lap 31 saw the safety car come out, bunching all the drivers together. 

Upon the restart, Russell got away well, but behind him, Franco Colapinto locked up and took out his team-mate Pierre Gasly, as well as McLaren's Lando Norris. 

The Mercedes driver was able to maintain his lead when the action restarted for a second time, but Bottas' late incident threw a spanner in the works for the final few corners. 

"It was a great weekend," Russell added. "It got a bit tense towards the end. Max was really pushing hard, and our pace was incredible.

"We were pulling almost a second ahead of everyone else.

"When that yellow flag came out, I backed off, and when I went on my power I had no turbo, and then I had no power, and that's when he almost passed me.

"A great weekend all in all. I felt on course to keep pulling away, and I felt in a really good groove this weekend. Hope it continues."

But there was no such positivity from reigning world champion Norris, who fumed at the incident that saw his race come to an end after he crashed out from ninth on the grid. 

Colapinto attempted to go down the inside but instead locked up, colliding with Gasly, who in turn took out Norris in the process, with all three drivers forced to retire. 

And Norris believes there should be serious punishment for Colapinto, suggesting the Alpine driver should serve a one-race ban for causing the accident. 

"Give him a ban. It's quite simple," Norris said. "The FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. 

"It's careless from people. It costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the bin now, so people should just get banned for this kind of driving. [They] don't deserve to be in Formula 1.

"If you cause a crash on a restart like this, yeah, you should have at least a one-race ban."