Russell Takes Surprise Win at the Home of Red Bull

The Saturday at the Red Bull Ring consisted of an F1 Sprint Race where Verstappen triumphed. Attention turned to Sunday’s race, with the drivers and teams readying themselves for the 71-lap encounter.

It was confirmed before the race that Zhou would start from the pit lane due to changes being made to the set-up of his Kick Sauber after qualifying (even though the Chinese driver qualified P20).

The windy conditions looked to be posing some problems before the pack had even assembled, with Russell locking up into Turn 3 en route to the grid. He subsequently asked the team to check the steering, before being informed by his engineer that there had been a gust of 40kph at the top of the hill entering into the corner.

Despite the wind, it was also feeling warm as the field lined up on the grid. When the tyre blankets came off, it was revealed that every driver had opted to run the medium rubber, with just Zhou in the pit lane bolting on the hard compound. All bar the Aston Martin pair had gone for fresh tyres rather than used.

Pole-sitter Verstappen made a strong start to hold the lead, while Russell chased Norris for P2 but the McLaren man defended to keep the position. Hamilton, meanwhile, gained a place from Sainz to slot into P4 before going after his team mate.

The tables were seemingly turned two laps later when Verstappen had to run off the tarmac too following another duel for the lead. But the tensions boiled over when there was dramatically contact between the pair on Lap 64, resulting in both having to limp back to the pits with punctures.

While Russell swept through to take the lead as Piastri overtook Sainz for second, Norris – who had just been handed a five-second time penalty for track limits – remained in the pits and ultimately retired the car, with too much damage to continue.

Verstappen, meanwhile, returned to the track but was now down in fifth, while a Virtual Safety Car was ordered and Russell was told by team boss Wolff,” You can win this, George!” Elsewhere the stewards had decided that Verstappen was at fault for the Norris incident, handing him a 10-second penalty.

As Piastri tried to close the gap down to Russell at the front, it was ultimately to no avail as the Briton crossed the line to take the second race victory of his F1 career, prompting him to jubilantly declare, “It isn't over until it's over!”

The McLaren of Piastri was just 1.906s down the road when he took P2, with Sainz completing the podium for Ferrari in P3 ahead of Hamilton in P4. Verstappen, meanwhile, had held enough of a margin over sixth-placed Hulkenberg to keep fifth, despite his 10-second time penalty.

Perez managed to add to Red Bull’s lower-than-expected points tally in seventh, while Magnussen made it a double points score for Haas in eighth and the RB of Ricciardo and Alpine of Gasly completed the top-10.

Despite being forecast to reach a points-paying position, Leclerc just missed out in the end and took P11 via a total of four visits to the pits. Ocon claimed P12 after his earlier battles with his team mate, while Stroll was the lead Aston Martin on a difficult weekend for the squad.

Tsunoda and Albon followed in 14th and 15th respectively, from the Kick Sauber pair of Bottas and Zhou in 16th and 17th. Alonso crossed the line down in 18th, marking the end of a trying day for the Spaniard with the fastest lap, and Sargeant was the final classified driver for Williams in 19th.

Norris was the only retiree from the race following that dramatic collision with Verstappen, marking his first DNF of the season.

Here is the final race classification:

Russell

Piastri

Sainz

Hamilton

Verstappen

Hulkenberg

Perez

Magnussen

Ricciardo

Gasly

Leclerc

Ocon

Stroll

Tsunoda

Albon

Bottas

Zhou

Alonso (Fastest Lap)

Sargeant

Norris (DNF, Driver of the Day)

Let's hear from our race winner: “Incredible. I saw on the TV that Max and Lando were going pretty hard, I knew Lando would want to try and get that race win, but the team have done an amazing job to get us in this fight. You’ve got be there at the end to pick up the pieces, and that’s where we were.”

Next up we head to the home of British motorsport: Silverstone. I will fortunately be there on the Saturday for Qualifying and I can't wait! Catch you there :)