Austrian GP: George Russell ends Mercedes win drought after Max Verstappen-Lando Norris collision

George Russell cashed in to take a completely unexpected Austrian GP win for Mercedes after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided in an acrimonious battle for the lead in the race’s closing stages.

A rare slow Red Bull pit stop on race leader Verstappen’s car turned the complexion of the 71-lap contest on its head and put Norris, who had been six seconds adrift of his rival before then, on the Dutchman’s tail in the final stint and saw the McLaren driver launch a series of bids for the lead.

Norris had already twice expressed his anger with what he felt was Verstappen’s “dangerous” defence of position, with the Red Bull driver in turn accusing the Briton of trying over-ambitious moves, before the two made controversial contact on lap 64.

With the McLaren attempting to go down the outside of the Red Bull into the Turn Three braking zone, the two cars touched rear wheels – each suffering punctures – and went wide in to the run-off area before heading for emergency visits to the pits with damaged cars.

While Norris was unable to continue and dropped out of the race, Verstappen returned to the track and finished in fifth place.

Verstappen was soon adjudged by stewards to have been at fault for the collision and handed a 10-second time penalty, although it did not change his fifth-place result.

With Russell having run third for the majority of the race just over 10 seconds back on the top two, the Briton gleefully took over the lead and completed the final laps to secure just his second career win in F1 – his and Mercedes’ first since November 2022.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended up a close second after overtaking Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and was left to rue what might have been after he had dropped from third to seventh on the grid after a track limits penalty in qualifying, which he and his team had vehemently disagreed with, on Saturday.

Sainz still beat Lewis Hamilton to the final podium berth on an otherwise disappointing weekend Ferrari when they were clearing only the fourth-fastest car again. Charles Leclerc’s miserable weekend ended outside the points in 11th after he broke his front wing in turn-one contact with Piastri and had to pit for repairs.

Fourth-placed Hamilton, who had battled team-mate Russell for third in the opening laps before dropping back, had earlier served a five-second penalty for crossing the white line on the entry to his first pit stop.

On a sensational day for the Haas team, Nico Hulkenberg crossed the line in sixth and team-mate Kevin Magnussen eighth – the pair finishing ether side of Sergio Perez, whose struggles in the second Red Bull continued – in a bumper points day for the team which moves them into seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.

RB’s under-pressure Daniel Ricciardo drove a strong race to ninth, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly taking the final point in 10th after winning out in another duel with team-mate Esteban Ocon earlier in the race.

Despite finishing only fifth, Norris’ retirement meant Verstappen – who had topped every session on the Sprint weekend up to Sunday’s main event – increased his championship lead over the McLaren driver to 81 points ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this coming week.

How the Verstappen-Norris battle unfolded – and controversially ended

The moment that ultimately decided the race – and led to all manner of post-race claims and counter claims between the key Red Bull and McLaren protagonists – came with seven laps to go.

For most of the afternoon the race had appeared to be Verstappen’s near-total control, despite the world champion voicing some concerns over tyre wear in the latter stages of the middle stint when his lead over Norris drifted between six and seven seconds.

But it was the world champion’s second pit stop on lap 52 that ultimately put him under unexpected pressure and set up the grandstand finish with Norris after a delay on his car’s left-rear wheel meant he lost three-and-a-half seconds – more than half his lead – to his chief pursuer, who had pitted immediately behind.

The pair left the pits for the final stint just 2.9 seconds apart.

This is how their duel then unfolded in the key, increasingly fraught laps that followed:

Lap 55/71
Quicker on his new medium tyres, compared to the leader’s used, in the laps after their stops to the point where he now had DRS usage on the back of the Red Bull, Norris initially took a brief look up the inside of the race leader into Turn Three but was covered off by the Dutchman.

Not that Norris was happy the way he felt Verstappen had come across on him under braking.

“He reacted to my move,” complained Norris on McLaren team radio. “You’re not allowed to do that. He saw me move and then he moved. That’s not allowed.”

Lap 59/71
Lining up the Red Bull again on the curved uphill run to Turn Three, Norris did get down the inside of Verstappen this time but could not slow his McLaren down in time and ran slightly wide into the run-off area on the outside of the corner.

Although he was able to get back on to the track in the lead, the McLaren swiftly ceded the position back to Verstappen on the run down to the next corner.

On Red Bull team radio, an adamant Verstappen remarked: “He overtook outside the track.”

But Norris argued that the Red Bull was again illegally moving in the braking zone. “He can’t keep moving after I move, it’s just dangerous,” he told his race engineer. “Or we’re going to have a big shunt. He forced me to go wide.”

Having already been shown the black-and-white warning flag for repeat track limits infringements, Norris’ latest off-course moment was swiftly ‘noted’ by race stewards. He was eventually handed a five-second time penalty, albeit it was not issued until after his later crash with Verstappen by which point it had been rendered academic.

Lap 63/71
In Norris’ third attempt to seize the lead at Turn Three, Verstappen ran off off track this time but came back on the track still in front of the McLaren.

“He should give the position back,” said an increasingly-frustrated McLaren driver on team radio. “I was ahead at the apex.”

But Verstappen himself argued: “He forced me off again. He just dive-bombed me, it’s not how you overtake.”

Lap 64/71
And then came the collision as the two cars made wheel-to-wheel contact after Norris tried the outside line in to Turn Three, seemingly in order to line up a switchback move out of the corner, and Verstappen moved left in defence in a move that stewards ruled meant the Red Bull driver was “predominantly” at fault for the resulting clash of tyres.

With both cars suffering instantaneous punctures, the pair ran wide and then grappled their cars back on to the track – with Norris still initially even unable to get ahead as he was forced wide onto the grass as he tried to draw alongside Verstappen halfway down the next straight – and then trying to get back to the pits for possible repairs as quickly as possible.

Russell soon came steaming past both to seize the lead and go on to secure the race win, despite late pressure from a quicker Piastri in the other McLaren. Russell crossed the line for his second career win two seconds ahead of the sole-remaining McLaren, with Sainz a further two seconds adrift.

Mercedes finally back to winning ways as Russell profits

For Mercedes and Russell, the Verstappen-Norris collision was perfectly, albeit fortunately, timed.

Having been out of the F1 winner’s circle for 18 months, the eight-time constructors’ champions found themselves in the position to profit on the back of a recent development push that has seen them close on the top two teams and overtake Ferrari.

Russell, who had qualified third, briefly lost his podium position in the early laps to a fast-starting Hamilton in the sister car but, once back ahead of him, drove strongly to ensure he was the chief beneficiary once the fireworks unfolded ahead.

“They [Verstappen and Norris] were going for it,” said Russell, who has now claimed both of Mercedes’ wins in the current regulation era since the start of 2022.

“I couldn’t believe how close we were to Lando and Max.

“We were only about 12 seconds behind and I knew it [the collision] was a possibility. You are always dreaming.

“Just so proud to be back on the top step. We have made so many strides since the start of the season. The last few races have been incredible. More to come.”

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