Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Harry Benjamin's driver ratings as George Russell wins in Baku

George Russell led from start to finish as he dominated the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The victory reduced the championship lead of his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to 66 points - from 81 - after the Italian finished fifth, although he had recovered from starting 16th on the grid.

Max Verstappen pushed Russell for the win as he took second place, less than two tenths of a second behind. Fellow Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar completed the podium by finishing third on his return to racing following a wrist injury.

Here are my ratings for how the drivers performed across the whole weekend in Baku.

Pretty difficult to find fault with this one. Fastest on Thursday, produced a stunning qualifying lap to take pole by more than eight tenths and controlled the race before holding off Max Verstappen under huge pressure at the end.

His eighth place in qualifying looked poor on paper but came with genuine power and energy deployment problems. Charged through the field on Saturday, passed Oscar Piastri for second and pushed Russell all the way to the line. An excellent recovery.

What a way to return after three races on the sidelines. Out-qualified Verstappen with fourth on the grid, showed excellent pace early in the race and finished on the podium while also playing the team game when Verstappen came through.

Second on the grid was an excellent qualifying result, although a tow certainly helped him get there. Ferrari simply didn't have the race pace to stay with Russell and the Red Bulls and fourth felt about the maximum available by the end.

A weekend of two very different halves. Crashing out in Q1 was a costly and unnecessary mistake, but he responded with a patient recovery from 16th to fifth despite picking up floor damage during the race.

His qualifying result was hurt by Ferrari's run plan leaving him without the tow he needed, but sixth in both qualifying and the race still made for a fairly quiet weekend. Solid enough, although Leclerc had the upper hand when it mattered.

Recovered again impressively after crashing in practice and starting 15th. Took advantage of the chaos when it came and then stole seventh from Esteban Ocon by the tiniest of margins at the finish. Goes a long way to limiting the grief he might get from punting into his Racing Bulls team-mate at Turn One.

A really strong race from the Haas driver after starting outside the top 10. Made some decisive moves as others fell into trouble and briefly looked set for seventh before Lindblad pinched it on the line.

Good enough to narrowly miss Q3 and stayed in the points despite losing out to Ocon during the race. Contact with Antonelli at the first restart was a slightly messy moment in an otherwise useful result for Haas.

The pace was encouraging and ninth in qualifying would have been Williams' best grid position of the season but failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags earned him a five-place grid penalty. Recovered from as low as 19th in the race to grab the final point.

Russell wins despite late Verstappen challenge

Norris says Colapinto should be banned after accident

Audi's big upgrade didn't translate into qualifying. However, Hulk recovered reasonably well to 11th thanks to the carnage ahead but lost the final point to Sainz late on.

Back at Racing Bulls after three races with Red Bull and showed reasonable pace to qualify 12th before penalties moved him up the grid. His race was badly affected when team-mate Lindblad made contact with him in the chaotic second restart, leaving 12th a difficult result to judge too harshly.

For most of the weekend this was heading towards a very high score for the McLaren driver. Third in qualifying and running in the podium positions for much of the race. But his big lock-up at Turn One dropped him all the way down the order and threw away a potentially excellent result.

Looked rapid compared with Cadillac team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the early part of the weekend. But a suspected Q2 challenge didn't quite materialise.

Another difficult weekend for Audi despite all the new parts on the car. Out in Q1 alongside Hulkenberg and although he made progress on race day, it was not the return he would have hoped for.

His final qualifying lap was deleted for being set under double-waved yellow flags, leaving him at the back of the order. Almost made it to the finish but found the barriers late on.

The weekend had actually been going well after reaching Q3 and starting ninth. But his enormous lock-up at the second restart wiped out team-mate Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris as well as his own race, turning a potential double points finish for Alpine into nothing.

A really good weekend that deserved so much better. Qualified seventh and was still running there at the final restart before being taken out by his team-mate through no fault of his own.

Not the cleanest weekend for McLaren's world champion. A mistake on his final qualifying lap left him fifth and another lock-up during the race had already cost him places before he became an innocent victim of Colapinto's restart crash.

Was behind Sainz in qualifying before his team-mate's penalty shuffled the grid. His race ended with an error into the barriers at Turn Four which brought out the first safety car, so a difficult weekend despite signs of improvement from the car.

Another weekend where there wasn't much opportunity to show anything. Qualified 19th, took a back-of-grid power-unit penalty and then retired with a mechanical problem in a miserable race for Aston Martin.

Qualified behind Alonso before also taking his own penalty. Another mechanical retirement meant Aston Martin left Baku without either car reaching the finish.