Russell faultless and Hadjar excellent on return - driver ratings

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.George Russell - 10/10Pretty 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.Max Verstappen - 9/10His 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.Isack Hadjar - 9.5/10What 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.Charles Leclerc - 7.5/10Second 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.Kimi Antonelli - 7/10A 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.Lewis Hamilton - 6.5/10His 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.Arvid Lindblad - 7.5/10Recovered 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.Esteban Ocon - 8/10A 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.Oliver Bearman - 6.5/10Good 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.Carlos Sainz - 6/10The 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.Nico Hulkenberg - 6/10Audi'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.Liam Lawson - 6/10Back 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.Oscar Piastri - 5.5/10For 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.Sergio Perez 5/10Looked rapid compared with Cadillac team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the early part of the weekend. But a suspected Q2 challenge didn't quite materialise.Gabriel Bortoleto - 5.5/10Another 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.Valtteri Bottas - 4/10His 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.Franco Colapinto - 3.5/10The 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.Pierre Gasly - 8/10A 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.Lando Norris - 5.5/10Not 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.Alex Albon - 4/10Was 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.Fernando Alonso - 4.5/10Another 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.Lance Stroll - 4/10Qualified behind Alonso before also taking his own penalty. Another mechanical retirement meant Aston Martin left Baku without either car reaching the finish.