George Russell was the surprise winner of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday after F1 champion Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided in the late stages to hand the Brit his first win since 2022.
Verstappen looked to be in course for a comfortable win at the Red Bull ring but a poor pit stop saw McLaren’s Norris close right in on the championship leader.
After multiple overtake attempts, Norris eventually looked to have the move done but Verstappen veered into the McLaren causing both to suffer heavy damage.
Norris retired from the race, after receiving a penalty for exceeding track limits, while Verstappen limped home in fifth despite a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.
Oscar Piastri finished second with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr in third.
Race winner Russell said: “It is incredible. I saw on the TV Max and Lando were going hard. You’ve got to be in there to pick up the pieces and that’s where we were.
“They were going for it and I couldn’t believe how close we got. There’s always a possibility [of winning]. The last three races have been incredible so there’s more to come.
“It’s no secret Red Bull and McLaren are out in front but we are always putting ourselves in that third position. We are riding a bit of a wave at the moment. Realistically we could have won in Canada so this makes up for that.”
Piastri said: “There were a lot of what ifs and maybes. I know it is only my fourth podium in F1 but I was so close to the win.
“Silverstone is a place of good memories and hopefully we can be up at the front. We are in the mix so I am excited.”
Sainz said: “Quite an eventful race. For us it was about trying to keep up with George [Russell]. We knew they would have an advantage. P3 is a good result, we can be happy and proud of that.
“It is happy days for F1 when there is action at the front. We’re coming off the back of a tough couple of races, podiums like this are always good news.”
The F1 paddock travels onto Northamptonshire for the British Grand Prix this weekend.
F1 Driver Standings
PosDriverTeamPoints1Max VerstappenRed Bull2372Lando NorrisMcLaren1563Charles LeclercFerrari1504Carlos SainzFerrari1355Sergio PerezRed Bull1186Oscar PiastriMcLaren1127George RussellMercedes1118Lewis HamiltonMercedes859Fernando AlonsoAston Martin4110Yuki TsunodaRB1911Lance StrollAston Martin1712Nico HulkenbergHaas1413Daniel RicciardoRB1114Oliver BearmanFerrari615Pierre GaslyAlpine616Kevin MagnussenHaas517Esteban OconAlpine318Alex AlbonWilliams219Zhou GuanyuSauber020Valtteri BottasSauber021Logan SargeantWilliams0Driver Standings