George Russell holds off Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli to take home his first win since the season opener in Australia.
The Russell reset in full swing
After putting in a superb lap yesterday that saw him secure pole position, George Russell rounds off the perfect weekend with a statement win in Austria. Russell had a clean getaway at the start of the race, maintaining his lead against the Ferraris, and it was very much smooth sailing from there. The British driver held a solid lead throughout the race and, despite pressure from a chasing Max Verstappen in the latter stages of the race, went on to take his second Austrian Grand Prix victory.
Looking back at Barcelona last time out, Russell told the media he was going into the weekend with a fresh mindset after being stuck in a bit of a slump. He scored pole position and a podium that weekend. Now he’s gone on to take pole and the win this time, it’s clear that whatever fresh view Russell has given the season is certainly working. He’s moved back up to P2 in the championship standings and is now only 40 points off of teammate Kimi Antonelli. Still with 14 races to go, and Russell seemingly in a much more comfortable groove, the race for the championship is very much back on.
Verstappen and Antonelli top off the podium
In what was an important race for Red Bull, given that it’s their home circuit, Max Verstappen optimised all that he could today after his crash in qualifying yesterday and came home in P2. Verstappen got off the line well at the start and engaged in some epic battles with old rival Lewis Hamilton in the earlier parts of the race. In the latter stages he closed in on race leader George Russell, however he didn’t quite have the pace to catch him and take the win for himself. In fact, Verstappen only narrowly avoided ending up in P3 as Kimi Antonelli finished a mere 0.3 seconds behind him.
Verstappen has certainly had his fair share of troubles this season and so a podium at his beloved team’s home race will certainly have brought heaps of joy to both himself and the team.
Kimi Antonelli started the race in P4 and did well to finish on the podium. He had a rocky start to the race and the young driver went off 3 times in the space of 2 laps, however he quickly got his act together and was fine from there on out. After a mechanical failure caused him to DNF for the first time this season last time out in Barcelona, a P3 finish is a nice way to bounce back.
Ferrari severely lacking the pace
It was a disappointing day for the Scuderia as they simply lacked the pace to compete for even the podium in today’s race. The Ferrari drivers started in P2 and P3, and so it seemed like the potential was definitely there for a podium, or even optimistically a win. They appeared strong at the start as Leclerc and Hamilton were both fighting Russell on the opening laps, however as the longer the race went on, the more their pace disappeared. Even after the drivers served their pit stops and were on fresh tyres, they just completely lacked the pace to challenge the cars ahead, and thus came home in P5 and P8.
Off the back of such a strong weekend for Hamilton in Barcelona, this is certainly a disappointing result for the Ferrari team and the Tifosi.
A round up of the rest of the grid
McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished in P4 and P7 respectively as the team struggled to be in the mix with the front runners. McLaren gave Piastri upgrades on his car this weekend, while Norris will be getting them in Silverstone next week, so hopefully they will be able to put in a stronger performance there, especially since it’s both Norris’ and the team’s home race.
VCARB’s great run of form this year continues yet again as both drivers finished inside the points for the third weekend in a row. Liam Lawson finished in P9, with teammate Arvid Lindblad bringing it home in P10.
Audi brought upgrades this weekend which worked really well as their performance during the race was strong and reliability was better. Unfortunately both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenburg just narrowly missed out on the points as they finished in P11 and P12.
Austria saw 4 DNFs including Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez as both Cadillacs retired in the opening laps due to their brakes excessively overheating. Lance Stroll boxed to retire the car due to a suspected ERS issue, while the Williams of Carlos Sainz abruptly stopped on the main straight due to what the team believed to be a suspected electrical problem.
Feature image courtesy of Formula 1