Russell wins in Austria as Verstappen and Norris collide

George Russell secured his second career F1 victory after winning a dramatic race in Austria.

The Mercedes driver looked set for a podium finish, but found himself leading the race late on after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided while battling for the lead.

Oscar Piastri crossed the line second, while Carlos Sainz completed the podium.

Charles Leclerc picked up damage on the opening lap when he made contact with the rear of Piastri’s McLaren, forcing him to pit for a new front wing.

The Mercedes cars fought hard in the early stages, with Lewis Hamilton briefly getting past Russell, before Russell regained third a few corners later.

Hamilton started to come under pressure from Sainz, who managed to move ahead of the Mercedes to climb up to fourth, while Piastri continued to recover from his early contact with Leclerc as he got past Sergio Perez for sixth.

As the leaders started to come into the pits, Hamilton made a late call to stop for new tyres, resulting in a five-second penalty for crossing the pit entry line.

There was also a 10-second time penalty for Fernando Alonso, after the Aston Martin driver collided with Guanyu Zhou, while Perez received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane, and Alex Albon was penalised for crossing the pitlane line.

In the battle for the lower points positions, a queue started to form behind Alonso, with both Alpines overtaking the two-time champion, before Esteban Ocon came under pressure from his teammate, defending hard to keep Pierre Gasly behind.

Verstappen and Norris both made their second pitstops with 19 laps to go, with the reigning champion having a lead of more than six seconds. But, one of the Dutchman’s tyres was slow to come off, costing Verstappen a chunk of time to leave Norris less than two seconds adrift.

Norris soon found himself within DRS range of Verstappen, and looked to pull off the overtake, but Verstappen made a late move to keep the McLaren behind, something Norris complained about over team radio.

Norris lunged for the lead, and briefly got ahead, but he locked up and had to run wide, forcing him to hand the lead back to Verstappen.

Norris continued to look for the pass, and looked for a way around the outside, but the two tangled, leaving both with punctures. Both made it back to the pitlane, with Verstappen able to continue, but the damage to Norris’s McLaren was too much. The stewards found Verstappen at fault, handing him a 10-second time penalty.

Piastri showed strong pace late in the race, passing Sainz to move up to second before closing the gap to Russell ahead, but he ran out of time to go for the win.

Haas secured their best finish of the season as Nico Hulkenberg held off late pressure from Perez to seal sixth, while there was no bonus point for fastest lap as Alonso set the best time of the day, but finished outside the points positions.

Provisional classification:

1 George Russell (Mercedes)

2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

5. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

6. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

7. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

8. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

9. Daniel Ricciardo (VCARB)

10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

11. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

12. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

14. Yuki Tsunoda (VCARB)

15. Alex Albon (Williams)

16. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)

17. Guanyu Zhou (Sauber)

18. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

19. Logan Sargeant (Williams)

DNF:

Lando Norris (McLaren)