George Russell advantage wiped out as F1 safety car deployed in Azerbaijan

George Russell's dominant advantage in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been wiped out after Alex Albon's crash triggered a safety car.

From pole position, the Mercedes driver was cruising to a straight-forward win and was over 10s clear of McLaren's Oscar Piastri in second place as the race entered its second-half, with the field still required to take their pit-stops.

However, on Lap 31 of 51, Albon locked up and crashed into the tyre barrier at Turn 6, meaning the safety car was deployed for the stricken machine to be recovered and repairs made to the barriers.

This meant the field completed their stops under the safety car, with Russell moving onto the favoured soft tyres for the restart - but he has lost the advantage he built up over the first half of the race.

Piastri is second, whilst Max Verstappen will be third on the restart, and on the same soft tyres as Russell, with Isack Hadjar fourth ahead of both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. 

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli will restart eighth, on the soft tyres as he looks to recover from his qualifying crash, with Lando Norris ninth, having lost positions just laps before Albon's crash by locking up at Turn 1 and running wide.

Along with Albon, there have been two other retirements, with both Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll stopping.