Formula 1 in Austria: George Russell benefits from the world champion’s crash

After a collision between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, Mercedes driver George Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix. World champion Verstappen, however, dragged himself to the finish line in fifth place after a self-inflicted crash at Red Bull’s home race in Spielberg. For his McLaren competitor, however, the eleventh Grand Prix of the year ended prematurely. Verstappen thus extended his World Championship lead to 81 points ahead of Norris – and Russell completely unexpectedly celebrated his first Grand Prix victory since Brazil 2022. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri came second after a breathtaking race in the final phase. Carlos Sainz came third in the Ferrari. Nico Hülkenberg, the only German regular driver, scored points again in sixth place.

At the start, Verstappen defended his lead and easily pulled away in the first few laps. Around 21 hours earlier, he was still having problems in the sprint and had to fend off and counter attacks from Norris and Piastri with his maneuvers. Despite this, the three-time champion won the short 100-kilometer race and earned himself eight world championship points. In the main race on Sunday, no one could keep up at the beginning, and things went particularly badly for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The winner of the Monaco Grand Prix had to pit after contact with Piastri after the first lap and have his front wing changed. The 26-year-old fell back to the back of the field and laboriously worked his way back up, while second-placed Norris did not get significantly closer to Verstappen.

In the 64th lap, the fateful contact between Verstappen and Norris occurs

At the beginning of the weekend, Verstappen had complained about slight set-up problems on his employer’s home track. In qualifying for the Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, however, his team apparently found the perfect settings to once again leave the competition behind. Only Norris was able to keep up somewhat, but he was still around six seconds behind after 20 of 71 laps. Even 30 laps later, the picture had not changed – but then things got chaotic.

With 20 laps to go, Verstappen complained on the radio that his tires had worn down badly. His team made a mistake in the pits and it took him a long 6.5 seconds to get going again. Suddenly Norris was only 1.3 seconds behind and was even able to overtake briefly. After the maneuver on lap 59, however, Verstappen immediately regained the lead. The race continued to be tough – too tough.

On lap 64, the two had a serious collision that resulted in them losing their positions. Norris had to end the race. Verstappen, on the other hand, managed to get to the pits and continue driving, but he received a time penalty for the crash. In the turbulent final phase, Russell took the lead ahead of Piastri and Sainz. Verstappen did everything he could to achieve a better result, but only managed fifth place.