Mercedes’s George Russell shares the front row with Charles Leclerc

Credit : Darko Bandic/AP

Could this title race still be alive? Almost certainly not. But for the first time in what feels like months, there is at least the sliver of an opening. George Russell took a hugely dominant pole position for Saturday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix while his Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli made a rare error, crashing out in Q1.

Antonelli – who clipped the wall at Turn 1 hard enough to dislodge a wheel – will start the race from 16th on the grid. And while the Italian made it through the pack to win from even further back – 19th – a few weeks ago in Monza, Baku is a very different proposition. The long straight notwithstanding, it is a difficult circuit at which to overtake.

It remains to be seen how the 2026 cars deal with that challenge, but at the very least Antonelli is likely to find his progress is much slower.…