George Russell handed Mercedes their first win of the season as he won an eventful Austrian Grand Prix 2024, which saw the pole-sitter and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen collide with championship contender Lando Norris, taking both him and himself out of contention from the win.
Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, also drove a stunning race to take second place ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. It was Lewis Hamilton in fourth place ahead of Verstappen, who ended up finishing well to do a lot of damage control. Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg finished a strong sixth ahead of Sergio Pérez, with Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, and Pierre Gasly rounding out the points places in that order.
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Verstappen led off the line as the lights went out and held off strong challenges from Norris and Russell as Hamilton got Sainz off the line.
Within a couple of laps, Hamilton was fighting with his teammate and had to give up the place to Sainz eventually for his first-lap action.
While the Alpine racers were at each other’s throats once again, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso received a ten-second penalty for pushing Zhou Guanyu off the track.
Verstappen seemed to be cruising to a win right up until Lap 52, when he first had a 6.5-second pit stop and then went wide on his out-lap. Norris immediately started the attack, and it was him and Verstappen coming together on Lap 64 and suffering punctures that saw Russell take a lucky lead of the race.
Russell and Norris were both handed penalties, and the latter eventually had to retire, while Verstappen re-joined after another stop and car damage.
Russell won from Piastri, who pipped Sainz at the end to second place, while Verstappen ended the race in fifth place, making sure the damage done on Sunday wasn’t too much.
Verstappen leaves Austria with an 81-point lead over Norris, who is second with 156 points, six ahead of Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull, meanwhile, hold on to their #1 spot in the Constructors’ Standings with 355 points, though Ferrari are slowly creeping up on them with 291 points. McLaren are third with 268 points, while Mercedes’ strong Austrian Grand Prix 2024 weekend sees them with 196 points.
The triple-header comes to an end next week, with the 2024 British Grand Prix.
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