Russell wins Austrian Grand Prix, fighting off Verstapppen challenge
Mercedes' George Russell has won the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. Despite starting from pole, Russell had a tough day in the office with Verstappen posing a major challenge, surely helped by Red Bull's car updates. Kimi Antonelli finished a very close third.
When the lights went out under the sunny Austrian skies, everybody seemed to have had a clean getaway with George Russell maintaining the lead after immediately cutting across the track to prevent Leclerc from getting the advantage before Turn 1. Leclerc settled for second and was closely followed by Hamilton through Turn 2 and 3 before the Briton took his change in Turn 5 to move up into second place.
Hamilton seemed clearly faster and quickly broke away from Leclerc who then fell victim to Verstappen a lap later. Kimi Antonelli meanwhile also didn't have the greatest first couple last, going with in Turn 1 and Turn 2, losing out to Verstappen halfway through lap 1.
Piastri followed in 6th and Norris in 7th despite challenging for better positions early on.
By lap 6, both Cadillacs has already retired with brake problems.
Leclerc meanwhile was extremely busy trying to hold Antonelli behind until on lap 7 he clearly used lots of energy early in the lap, enabling Antonelli to have much more power into Turn 9 and make an easy pass.
The other Ferrari of Hamilton was also pretty busy with the mirrors as Verstappen had caught up with Hamilton noting "the car is rapidly moving into understeer". Verstappen on the othe hand complained of brake pulling, but it didn't stop him from getting ahead of the Ferrari in Turn 3 of lap 11. Hamilton returned the favour in lap 5 following which they went side by side through the next high speed left hand corners. Verstappen round the outside was eventually squeezed on the gravel and forced to back out, quickly calling for a penalty over his radio.
One lap later Hamilton was the first to make a pitstop, exchanging medium tyres for a fresh set of hards. Hamilton returned to the track in 10th and was encouraged to give it all to try to stay ahead of Verstappen if he would pit too. He didn't, but Leclerc was called in, allowing Antonelli to focus ahead rather than looking at the Ferrari in his mirrors.
By lap 17 no other top 10 driver had followed Ferrari to the pits yet with Russell noting "I think this is all surface overheating. A one stop might be possible".
At the end of lap 18, Verstappen pits from second place. He returned to the track in 6th, 2 seconds behind Hamilton. Verstappen's pit was a signal for many others. Russell and Piastri got pitted the next lap, Norris was pitted yet another lap later.
By lap 22 Verstapppen had closed the gap to Hamilton and again got past Hamilton. The latter once again repassed in Turn 4 but for the next left hand corners, Verstappen chose a different strategy and ensured he was on the inside, thereby overtaking Hamilton again and quickly distancing him. At the same time, Verstappen's team mate Hadjar posted the fastest lap while chasing Piastri for 6th.
A lap later, Sainz's car broke down on the pit straight. As he parked halfway, the yellow flag was out immediately and Antonelli was pitted right away, perhaps too early as that meant he pitted under green while the VSC was activated when he just came back out on track. Hamilton on the other hand entered the pits 30 seconds later and switched to softs, returning to the track in 7th place, 2 seconds behind Piastri and Hadjar, who were also reasonably closely trailing Leclerc and Antonelli. The latter clearly lacked confidence to make a lunge as the Italian struggled with a brake split - one side hotter, and therefore breaking differently than the other.
In lap 30 Antonelli found a way past Leclerc in Turn 4 while Hamilton moments later also made it past Hadjar in the same corner.
As Verstappen edged ever closer to Russell, Piastri and the two Ferraris were having a battle for 4th after Hamilton had been powerlessly following, hampered by an overheating engine. On lap 37 Piastri found his way past Leclerc after Turn 1 with Hamilton passing his teammate half a lap later after cautiously backing out of an overtaking move in Turn 4.
Despite trying, Hamilton failed to make it past Piastri on the softs, so when the McLaren driver was called in, Hamilton pitted as well. The duo returned to the track with a similar distance between them, but down in 6th and 7th, just ahead of Hadjar. One lap later Russell was called in as well, having only 1.4 seconds left over Verstappen.
At the rear, things weren't really going to plan for Aston Martin. After Alonso was given a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pitlane, Stroll was called in to retire from the race 25 laps from the end. That left Alonso in a distant lonely last position, 23 seconds down on 17th placed Albon.
Russell meanwhile regained hope to win the race as Verstappen's pace degraded quickly after Russell's stop. When the Red Bull driver pitted on lap 50, he rejoined in third place, 10.8 seconds behind Russell. Antonelli inherited the lead with a 7 second advantage over his teammate.
Antonelli pitted on lap 51, back in the race in third place, 1.4 seconds ahead of Piastri who managed to shake Hamilton off and pass Leclerc. When Hamilton also made it past Leclerc, he was 2.5 seconds behind the McLaren.
Following a solid qualifying, the race wasn't really one to write home about for Ferrari. Hamilton clearly had insufficient pace to get back to Piastri while Leclerc struggled on his set of hard tyres. After being passed by Hadjar and Norris, he pitted again, knowing he wasn't going to lose a position by making that stop anyway.
Up on front, the top three were coming closer together as they neared the end of the race. With 8 laps remaining, Russell retained 5 seconds over Verstappen with Antonelli 3.4 seconds behind the Red Bull. The gap further reduced to 2.2 seconds and 0.7s at the start of the ultimate lap.
It gave Antonelli a slight chance for second with overtake enabled, but it proved insufficient, finishing 4 tenths behind Verstappen. That will have been a very welcome chequered flag for Russell after mounting pressure from behind, especially in the second half of the race. Needless to say, Red Bull's big upgrade package has payed off, and will surely give them hope for more podiums and race wins soon.
