Max Verstappen denies George Russell super-rare F1 achievement only Lewis Hamilton holds

George Russell fell agonisingly short of a Super Grand Chelem at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after Max Verstappen beat him to top spot in the final free practice session in Baku.

Russell topped FP1 and FP2, then took pole position in qualifying before leading every lap of Sunday's race to claim victory and the fastest lap, completing a standard Grand Chelem in the process.

Had he also finished quickest across all three practice sessions and all three qualifying segments, he would have joined an extremely exclusive club.

But Verstappen denied him that distinction in FP3 on Friday morning, setting a time of 1:43.922 to beat Russell's 1:44.021 by just under a tenth of a second.

It meant the Mercedes driver's run of topping every session of the weekend was broken at the first hurdle of Friday running, even as he went on to sweep Q1, Q2 and Q3 before dominating the grand prix itself.

Hamilton's benchmark stands alone

The Super Grand Chelem, though not an officially recognised FIA classification, has been achieved only once since the current three-part qualifying format was introduced in 2006.

Lewis Hamilton managed the feat at the 2015 Italian Grand Prix, topping every practice and qualifying session at Monza before winning from pole and setting the fastest lap, though Mercedes did face a post-race tyre pressure query that the stewards ultimately dismissed.

Daniel Ricciardo also came close in 2018, securing pole, victory and every lap led in Monaco, but a mid-race MGU-K failure cost his Red Bull roughly a quarter of its power and left him managing brakes and fuel for the remainder of the race. The resulting pace deficit ruled out any chance of the fastest lap that weekend.