Everything behind Mercedes' rivals' most crushing defeat of 2026

George Russell's pole-winning margin at Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, 0.837 seconds, marked the biggest defeat for Mercedes' rivals in a 2026 qualifying session.

Even with just one car in Q3, Mercedes managed to beat its previous benchmark, of 0.785s, from the season-opening Australian GP weekend.

It undeniably has the best car and power unit package in Baku, but its rivals compromised themselves, making that gap bigger than it needed to be, as we explain.

Verstappen was down on power

Max Verstappen's Red Bull topped final practice and was looking like Mercedes’ closest challenger ahead of - and during - qualifying.

But that challenge failed to materialise, with Verstappen ending up eighth and a second and a half away from pole - his biggest time gap to pole of the season when he has set a lap in Q3.

His returning team-mate Isack Hadjar ended up as the lead Red Bull, in fourth, over half a second clear of Verstappen, who believed the majority of the gap could be explained by a mysterious power issue.

"The whole qualifying we were down on power, it was consistently half a second down to Isack's car," Verstappen said after qualifying.

"For whatever reason, we don't know why that happened in qualifying. Then in Q3, the middle lap coming out of the last corner, my battery didn't go to 100%, so I had to abort that lap.

"And too cold tyres then, because you don't have the speed, you don't have the power that you should have. Then when I tried on my final lap, with no power, the tyres [being] too cold and a yellow flag, it's not happening."

Verstappen encountered the yellow flags for Lando Norris's off in Q3, which also compromised him, so that 1.5s gap was far from representative.

If Verstappen had been able to put his three best sectors together, that deficit would have been 1.014s. That gap would have been reduced further with a clean final Q3 lap, with Lewis Hamilton believing Red Bull has the second-fastest car in Baku.

"It's a shame...the whole weekend we're doing a good job, I'm happy with the car and then it all just falls apart in qualifying because of problems out of my control," Verstappen said.

"It's a little bit this season...it's a bit too fragile at times."

The Red Bull drivers have suffered from an aerodynamic degradation issue all season but Verstappen said this wasn't present in Baku.

Asked by The Race if he might sacrifice his eighth place on the grid to take a new power unit, Verstappen said: "First just need to figure out what it is [the problem].

"Otherwise, if you have to run with that also tomorrow [in the race], it's not going to be a lot of fun. Let's see."

Verstappen did rank 20th out of 22 drivers in the speed trap (306.3km/h) across the start/finish line in qualifying, 11km/h down on Hadjar and over 18km/h down on Hamilton, the fastest driver through there.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed Verstappen's comments, saying his car developed an issue during qualifying that "got worse as the session went on".

"Not only did it bring a large straight-line speed deficit, but it also made our life very complicated with energy deployment and tyre preparation," said Mekies, who felt Verstappen's eighth place was "sort of a damage limitation" in the circumstances and added that Red Bull would "change the faulty parts" overnight.

McLaren's major straightline deficit

Verstappen wasn't the only driver complaining about straightline speed after qualifying.

Reigning world champion Lando Norris seems resigned to a difficult Azerbaijan GP considering McLaren's overall lack of aerodynamic efficiency and what he perceives to be a particular straightline deficit on his car compared to the sister McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

"The guys say everything's working as expected, but when you see eight tenths to the top, it's painful," said Norris. "Our time losses are in the straights. That's another area we just need to look at, because we're just a step worse to Mercedes in everything straightline-related.

"I've been comfortable in the car the whole weekend. My last lap I made a mistake and I paid the price, but I'm at a point in the championship where I kind of have to go for pole, or I kind of die trying. Of course, I paid the price for pushing too much, but it is what it is.

“It's been tough, especially with my car. We have to understand why I'm basically having to push more than Oscar to try and make up for my straightline speed [deficit].”

Team principal Andrea Stella said McLaren was investigating Norris's deficit and added: "It seems to be linked to the behaviour of the fuel injection, something that hopefully we will be able to or the adaptive systems should be able to improve [for the race].

"It looks occasionally [like] the power unit generates a bit less power. But this is a specific phenomenon; it's nothing to do with the overall behaviour of the power unit."

McLaren has brought a significant suite of upgrades to Baku, in an attempt to improve the car's efficiency - including a return for its revolving rear 'H-wing' that debuted at Monza - but Norris clearly felt further steps are needed to put McLaren in range of Mercedes.

"They have a very efficient car - they always have done for years," he added. "We need to take a big step in that direction if we want to be competitive in any straightline speed track for the rest of the season.

"But they also have just a good car in all the corners as well. They're just doing a better job in all areas, power unit and car."

Stella agreed. "While we have the same power unit, there's a few differences and I think it's fair to say that their package, chassis, ratios, power unit itself, it just seems to be more effective when it comes to generating top speed."

Hamilton rues Ferrari run plan and 'stupid tyres'

Hamilton's furious weaving before each of his push laps in Q3 highlighted that getting temperature into his front tyres was a factor in his challenge for a better grid slot falling away.

"I was weaving to try and save my life, and I still couldn't get these stupid tyres working," he said afterwards after he ended up sixth. "Such a pain in the ass. We've got to bring back some good tyres."

But tyre temperatures did not explain the full deficit to pole position as he ended up 1.3s adrift of Russell and nearly half a second behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Instead, the biggest time loss came from Hamilton having found himself running at the front of a train of cars so he was left without a slipstream.

Ferrari opted to change its run plan for Q3, doing push, cool, push laps rather than having a run and then changing tyres.

But its strategy backfired when cars Hamilton was running behind in the train - such as the two McLarens and Carlos Sainz's Williams - all were stopping, so got out of the way.

By the time things had shaken out, Hamilton had realised he was alone on track, more than 25 seconds behind Russell and simply towing his team-mate Charles Leclerc around.

At one point, realising what was happening, Hamilton asked his team for advice on what to do - but then told them not to worry as he would "look on the TV".

Based on what Hamilton had learned when he got a good tow in FP3 as he ended up third, the lack of a slipstream was very costly.

"It was six tenths," he said, when The Race asked how much the gain from getting the tow right was worth. "I didn't have one in that session."

Leclerc did, though, having followed Hamilton around, and that helped him secure his spot on the front row, albeit still well adrift of Russell.

Russell's form, Antonelli's blunder

Russell’s first pole position since the Austrian GP in late-June stands as his most compelling qualifying performance since his outstanding Friday and Saturday at the Barcelona GP.

He pointed to a slipstream that he felt gave him a tenth or two extra on a qualifying lap that "all perfectly came together" in Baku.

"I've been feeling in a great spot this whole weekend," said Russell. "I felt confident, I felt hooked up. I'm getting more and more on top of this car and what it requires, and it's just all feeling more intuitive."

Not that he believed this has come from nowhere. Asked whether he felt this represented a breakthrough, he suggested that wasn't the case and instead pointed to his improved form since the summer break.

"It's definitely just been perfectly hooked up for me this weekend so far," he said. "Me and my team have put so much work in to help me get on top of the limitations.

"Since the summer break it's been great and the performance has been substantially better than the results have shown."

Inevitably, Antonelli's absence from the track after clipping the inside wall at Turn 1 in Q1 means Russell didn't have the opportunity to prove he would have maintained his form from the build-up to qualifying and outpace his team-mate.

But Antonelli, who completed fewer practice laps than anyone after a hydraulic problem struck in FP1, with the resulting power unit change delaying his start to FP2, always seemed on the back foot.

"I did miss a lot of laps but in FP3 I felt pretty good," said Antonelli. "It was just a misjudgement, with the grip changing so much. An unnecessary one in Q1, and it’s a very good reminder that, like this, things don't go my way, so I need to do a much better job."