When is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix? Start time, F1 grid, how to watch and weather forecast

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Evening Standard · collected 2026-09-25 · by George Flood

Quick Summary

The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is scheduled for Saturday, September 26 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, starting at 12pm BST (3pm local time). George Russell secured pole position ahead of Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri after Antonelli's unexpected crash left him in 16th place on the grid. The race will be broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports, with coverage beginning at 11am BST. Weather forecasts predict warm and sunny conditions throughout the day, with temperatures reaching around 25 degrees Celsius.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-25, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Kimi Antonelli surprisingly crashed out during qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, hitting the wall at the first corner and damaging his car's suspension, placing him 16th on the grid. His teammate George Russell secured pole position, despite Antonelli leading the Formula 1 standings by 81 points after 14 rounds.

Russell expressed confidence in his car's performance around the Baku City Circuit but acknowledged that Antonelli remains a threat due to previous performances from behind the starting grid. The race is set for Saturday, September 26, at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan, with temperatures expected to be warm and sunny. Apple TV offers a seven-day free trial to watch the race live streaming exclusively in the United States. Mercedes’ George Russell will start first ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Oscar Piastri from McLaren starts third. The longest straight on the F1 calendar at Baku City Circuit highlights the importance of straight-line speed for this event. Despite Antonelli's poor qualifying position, he remains the championship leader and a contender for victory. Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr., Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Arvid Lindblad, Oliver Bearman, Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, Kimi Antonelli, and others will also compete. The race is an early one for U.S. viewers starting at 7 a.m. ET on September 26. Despite the large point deficit, Russell aims to narrow it with a strong performance in Baku.

Written for “Azerbaijan Grand Prix” on 2026-10-05, grounded in this article and the 11 other(s) covering the same event.

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
12
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
0%
0 of 12 hedged
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Correction & hedging signals
67.5
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
12
Sports
Narrative spread
2
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-25 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Sports · 12 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard · 0.97 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 10 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles describe the exact same incident, including Antonelli's crash and Russell's pole position in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.”
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 33 📰 publisher trust 78
“Both articles describe Kimi Antonelli's crash during qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the same date, resulting in him starting the race in 16th position.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 9 📰 publisher trust 63
“Both articles describe George Russell securing pole position in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying on Friday.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 2 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles describe Kimi Antonelli's crash during the first session of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the same date.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 8 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles describe Antonelli's unexpected crash and subsequent poor qualifying performance leading to him starting in 16th position, while George Russell secured pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.”
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 5% hedged 1 of 19 📰 publisher trust 78
“Both articles describe George Russell winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2026, with Max Verstappen challenging him late in the race.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 16 📰 publisher trust 61
“While both articles discuss a race involving Russell and Piastri in Azerbaijan, Article A focuses on qualifying sessions where Antonelli had an error and Russell secured pole position, while Article B describes the main race where Piastri lost potential points due to crashing.”
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 3% hedged 1 of 36 📰 publisher trust 61
“While both articles discuss aspects of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, they refer to different stages of the event; Article A mentions qualifying and Russell's pole position, while Article B covers Piastri starting from third on race day.”
Al Jazeera
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 12 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A discusses qualifying and grid positions, while Article B covers the actual race results.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 28 📰 publisher trust 63
“Article A discusses events from a year prior, while Article B covers current details about the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix and recent qualifying sessions.”

Publisher

Evening Standard · 3459 article(s) · 22 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 22 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

George Flood
62 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Declan Rice withdrew from the England squad and William Saliba remains sidelined, though there was at least some good news with fellow defenders Ben White, Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera all returning to training at London Colney, along with youngster Marli Salmon.
🔮 Another said: “The [Moises] Caicedo-Scott pivot would be unbeatable.”
🔮 However, Chelsea fans may still be worried that a reported focus on defensive work after shipping so many goals early in the campaign has yet to pay off.
🔮 Manchester United could reportedly seek legal action in the JJ Gabriel saga, while they are eyeing Croatia striker Igor Matanovic and have learned the asking price for several targets including Jean-Philippe Mateta and Santiago Beltran.
🔮 They held a player vote on the eve of the game during a four-hour summit at their team hotel that caused significant delays to both their pre-match press conference and final training session. However, the two sets of players and captains did not shake hands or exchange pennants ahead of the game and Ireland bowed their heads during the playing of the Israeli national anthem, also wearing black armbands - with Cardiff winger Moylan kissing his after scoring. Hallgrimsson confirmed that his side would fulfil their second game against Israel too, having drawn 2-2 with Austria at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday in a game disrupted by protestors throwing tennis balls bearing Palestinian flags on to the pitch.
🔮 Mariota will start once more against the Colts after Daniels was again ruled out, despite having logged three limited practices as he recovers from the dislocated left elbow he suffered in the week two loss to the Cowboys.
🔮 Emegha could lead an attack also featuring the likes of fellow summer recruit Danny Welbeck, though it depends if the Dutch forward has now recovered fully from a hamstring injury sustained in July during another behind-closed-doors friendly against Bromley.
🔮 When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
🔮 Emegha could lead an attack also featuring the likes of fellow summer recruit Danny Welbeck, though it depends if the Dutch forward has now recovered fully from a hamstring injury sustained in July during another behind-closed-doors friendly against Bromley.
🔮 Belgium then frustrated a dominant France side missing injured talisman Kylian Mbappe in Brussels, but could not hold on for a valuable point as they were undone by Michael Olise’s late wondergoal.
Also by George Flood
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 62 articles by George Flood →

Topics

Azerbaijan Grand Prix Baku Ferrari McLaren Sky Sports

Subjects

Baku GPE · 3× Ferrari ORG · 3× McLaren ORG · 3× Sky Sports ORG · 3× Antonelli PERSON · 2× Azerbaijan GPE · 2× Charles Leclerc PERSON · 2× Mercedes ORG · 2× Oscar Piastri PERSON · 2× Red Bull ORG · 2×

Narrative

Russell took full advantage of that uncharacteristic mistake from the Italian, dominating thereafter to comfortably clinch pole position ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. But he must turn that lead role into just a third victory of the season on the western shores of the Caspian Sea if he is to keep alive his hopes of still taking the title fight to runaway leader Antonelli with only nine races left to go this term.
framing: assertive · carried by 2 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-25
🔮 Saturday is set to be another warm and sunny day in Baku, where there will be only a moderate breeze and a high temperature of around 25 degrees.

Claims (12 extracted, 0 hedged)

That is after Antonelli surprisingly crashed out by hitting the wall in a rare error during the first session of qualifying on Friday, leaving him down in 16th position on the starting grid this weekend. asserted
Antonelli → crash → grid
Russell took full advantage of that uncharacteristic mistake from the Italian, dominating thereafter to comfortably clinch pole position ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. But he must turn that lead role into just a third victory of the season on the western shores of the Caspian Sea if he is to keep alive his hopes of still taking the title fight to runaway leader Antonelli with only nine races left to go this term. asserted
races → take → Antonelli
The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix takes place on Saturday, September 26 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. asserted
Prix → take → Baku
The race is due to start at 12pm BST, which 3pm local time in Baku. asserted
race → start → Baku
The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is being held a day earlier than usual - on Saturday, rather than the usual Sunday slot for F1 races. asserted
Prix → hold → races
That is to avoid a clash with Remembrance Day in Azerbaijan, which takes place on Sunday (September 27). asserted
which → avoid → Sunday
How to watch Azerbaijan Grand Prix TV channel: asserted
watch → watch → Prix
In the UK, the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is available to watch live on Sky Sports. asserted
Prix → watch → Sports
The main build-up starts at 11am BST on Saturday, with the race itself from 12pm. asserted
up → start → 12
Sky Sports subscribers can also catch the action live online through the Sky Go app. asserted
subscribers → catch → app
Saturday is set to be another warm and sunny day in Baku, where there will be only a moderate breeze and a high temperature of around 25 degrees. asserted
Saturday → set → degrees
There looks to be no chance of any rain playing a role in what is always an entertaining spectacle regardless. asserted
what → look → role
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