THE BIG PICTURE: Not the earth shattering affect on the championship like last year's Baku events. Antonelli played it safe when he ran into problems, and Russell got major confidence back. But, it all may be too little, too late.

EVENT: Note they only listed it as a sellout, no actual attendance figure. Thursday was essentially empty. Friday was less than half full. Saturday may have been full, but all the grandstands are small. This event never sells enough tickets to pay for itself.

TRACK: Baku is already a great, racy street circuit. After Madring {we are now washing our mouths out with soap}, Baku looks like the greatest race track in racing history.

QUALIFYING: Russell absolutely nails it with the largest margin since Montreal '23, Leclerc shares the front row, the McLarens surprise fizzles out, Hadjar makes a triumphant return solidly beating Verstappen no less, and Antonelli puts himself on the back foot.

RACE: From domination to chaos to thriller to nail biter.

START: Russell rockets off the line, the McLarens take advantage of the grippier outside line (Piastri past Leclerc for second; Norris around Hadjar for fourth), as everyone else plays it safe, especially Antonelli who actually loses a spot.

RESTART: Synchronized teammate fratricide.

RUSSELL: George saw this script before. A dominating weekend and race spoiled by the safety car bugaboo. This time, he superbly held off the most feared stalker on the grid.

ANTONELLI: A very wise race, especially for a 20-year-old. He didn't necessarily have the speed and was at the back of the pack. So, Kimi took what he could and was offered, minimizing the damage to his points lead. In other words, what Piastri did not do last year.

MERCEDES: So glad Toto was "thrilled' over Russell's win...

RED BULL: It was all out in the open concerning their process between Max Verstappen and whomever is in the other seat. Essentially, it doesn't matter who is in the other seat. This whole team is all about Max.

VERSTAPPEN: Of course, most of the time it is justified as Max put in another brilliant drive in a subpar car compared to the Mercedes.

HADJAR: Now, that's the way you do a comeback.

FERRARI: Despite moments, most of which were due to others' misfortunes, they never were really a threat for anything.

LINDBLAD: Bad news, good news for Arvid. He's got some explaining to do with his teammate, but he did get in the points.

LAWSON: Back to the junior team where he was greeted by a punt from his teammate.

OCON: Pascal Wehrlein was at one time the hot new thing for Mercedes. He was usurped by Ocon who became the hot new thing for Mercedes. He was usurped by Russell who became the hot new thing for Mercedes. Timing in F1 is everything. It appears Esteban's F1 career is over, and like Wehrlein, the promise was never fulfilled.

HAAS: Gene never wanted to be just a Ferrari junior team. And, he didn't want to repeat using two young drivers. It appears he is going to do both, keeping Bearman and bringing in Ferrari's hot new prospect, Rafael Camara.

BEARMAN: Which means Olivier will really have his work cutout for him, fighting for that, for now nonexistent, promotion to the Prancing Horse.

WILLIAMS: We have to rate those massive updates as a dud. For now.

SAINZ: But Carlos did get a point.

MCLAREN: Quite an up and down weekend.

STROLL: Mr. Mechanical DNF. At least this time Lance didn't cause a virtual safety car.

ASTON MARTIN: Continues to be a useless entity.

COLAPINTO: So, will the nutcase Argentinian social media fans now send death threats to Franco? We didn't think so...

F2: Brazilian Rafael Camara took over the points lead (207-200) thanks to a victory in the second feature race after Irishman Alexander Dunne lost the win with a penalty, but Dunne did win the first feature race. Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov fell to second due to finishing fifth in the sprint race (after starting on the reverse grid pole, which was won by Swede Dino Beganovic) and crashing out of the first feature race. There are ... well, we don't know how many races are left.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Drag race.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 10th -- This was the 10th closest finish in F1 history at 0.196 seconds.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This was the closest finish since the 2002 Austrian GP, which was the 9th closest finish at 0.182 seconds. And, it was mighty controversial as Michael Schumacher "beat" Rubens Barrichello. This was the era of Ferrari having a firm No. 1 and 2 driver with strict team orders. Despite Barrichello leading most of the race from pole and Schumacher essentially having the title wrapped up at this point, Ferrari still enacted team orders. Barrichello moved over just before the finish line to hand Schumacher the sham victory. Michael was so embarrassed, he insisted Rubens stand on the top step of the podium and gave him the first place trophy. Meanwhile, the crowd booed throughout the ceremony.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @PG10_Inside on the Alpine kerfuffle:

He's just thrown it in the bin... he's just thrown all the team's hard work in the bin...

#F1

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Ever the satirist, Fernando Alonso said after (obviously) failing to get through Q1, "I pushed into Turn 15 and locked up, so driver error -- and because of that we are not on pole."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Arvid Lindblad interrupting Liam Lawson's interview in front of the world, "I'm really, really sorry."

SCHEDULE: Off to the Bahrain GP in ... umm ... Malaysia?!

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