Formula 1: Russell wins in Austria, Verstappen and Norris clash

George Russell (Mercedes) won the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, taking advantage of a collision between Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lando Norris (McLaren). The former finished 5th, while the latter had to retire.

The Briton, who started in third position, beat Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), giving Mercedes its first victory since November 2022. The 26-year-old driver thus won the second victory of his career after that obtained in Brazil at the end of 2022, the latest for the German team.

Puncture for Verstappen and Norris

Russell took advantage of the battle between Verstappen and Norris, which raged with around ten laps remaining and ended on the 64th of the 71 laps of the race with a collision and a puncture for each of the two men, who were fighting to victory.

If the Dutchman – found responsible for the accident and who received an anecdotal ten-second penalty – was able to leave after changing tires, the Briton was not able to come out of the pits because his wing was also damaged.

Even though victory eluded him, Verstappen nevertheless pulled off a good move as he increased his championship lead over Norris by 12 points, to 81 points.

After the Grand Prix, the two rivals returned to the incident. “He ruined my race, destroyed my car,” Norris lamented, adding: “I have a lot of respect for Max and what he can achieve. […] but there are times when I think he might go a little too far and I feel like today (editor’s note: Sunday) it is a bit the case».

Verstappen responded to him immediately: “For me, it wasn’t a movement on braking. I saw it coming of course, so I defended the inside a little bit. And then on braking, we touched with the rear tires and we both punctured, which is obviously something you don’t want to see happen. The 10 seconds seemed a little harsh to me because I didn’t have the impression that there was anything very aggressive in this movement. You could say that we limit the damage, of course, that’s not what we want, I think, for both of us. We’re both annoyed. Lando’s not the only one who’s annoyed, I am too.”

Carlos Sainz saves Ferrari’s weekend

Oscar Piastri, author of a remarkable race, failed in 2nd place less than two seconds behind Russell, ahead of Sainz, very happy to obtain a podium after another difficult weekend for the Scuderia. The race of his teammate Charles Leclerc was in fact spoiled from the first turn, when Piastri hit him and damaged his front wing, forcing the Monegasque to return to the pits to change it and say goodbye to a good result, even if he managed to move up from 20th to 11th place.

The German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) created a surprise by snatching 6th place after overtaking the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) at the very end of the race. The Dane Kevin Magnussen took an unexpected 8th place at the wheel of the second Haas, while the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls), threatened with losing his drive after recent mediocre performances, offered himself a little respite by finishing in 9th position.

After placing its two cars in the points during the last two races, the Alpine team was unable to do it again in Austria since Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished 10th and 12th respectively. The two French drivers once again gave their team a cold sweat when they almost collided while overtaking Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) halfway through the race: Ocon spun a little wide and forced Gasly to go off the track, even if the latter was able to get back in front of the Spaniard.

A few laps later, a new skirmish took place between the two Normans and Gasly this time got the better of his teammate, before releasing an ironic “ciao” on the radio!

The paddock meets at Silverstone (England) next weekend for a third Grand Prix in three weeks after Spain and Austria.

AFP

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