SPIELBERG, Austria — George Russell boosted his title bid by seizing victory in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix on the Crimson Bull Ring.
The Mercedes driver earned his seventh profession victory forward of a chasing Max Verstappen and championship chief Kimi Antonelli.
Russell made a clean getaway from pole place when the lights went out, whereas Verstappen additionally bounced again from the frustration of his crash in Qualifying to make features within the early laps. Antonelli didn’t have a completely clean begin, the Italian operating large on a number of events.
Whereas Russell held a stable lead for a lot of the next laps, Verstappen – after participating in a couple of feisty battle with Lewis Hamilton alongside the way in which – made his approach as much as second because the race progressed, ensuing within the Dutchman placing rising strain on Russell afterward.
A tense finish to the Grand Prix adopted as, after his ultimate pit cease, Verstappen set about chopping into Russell’s lead – simply as Antonelli was additionally making an attempt to chase down the Dutchman from third. However Russell finally crossed the road by 1.611 seconds forward of Verstappen, the Briton additionally transferring again as much as second within the standings within the course of.
“Lots of arduous work from my staff to get us again on observe. Clearly there was a difficult run of kind at one level,” Russell stated. “Max and Crimson Bull have been extremely fast this weekend, so kudos to them, however because of everybody, because of the followers. It was fairly toasty on the market, so I’m trying ahead to a drink now.”
Verstappen held off Antonelli by simply 0.375 seconds, bringing to an finish a formidable day for the four-time World Champion, whereas Antonelli needed to accept third – which means that he now leads the championship by 40 factors.
Oscar Piastri was fourth for McLaren, forward of the Ferrari of Hamilton in fifth and Crimson Bull’s Isack Hadjar in sixth.
The opposite McLaren of Lando Norris claimed P7, adopted by Charles Leclerc in P8 on a disappointing day for the Scuderia.
