F1 Austrian Grand Prix 2026 Recap
George Russell back to winning ways with Austrian race win
Mercedes’ George Russell has won the Austrian Grand Prix 2026 after holding off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his own teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli for the win. For Mercedes, it was not only a double podium but also saw the Silver Arrows get back to winning ways after being beaten in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago by Ferrari and Lewis Hamiton. Ferrari, meanwhile, endured a rough Sunday in Austria as Charles Leclerc, who started on the front row, finished in eighth while Hamilton went from a third place start to finish in fifth place.
For Russell, it was a much-needed win in the championship battle as he closes the gap to Antonelli and moves back into second place in the Drivers’ Standing and it was also Russell’s second win of the season, after winning the season opener in Australia back in March. Russell’s win also kept the nine-race streak of pole sitters winning the race in Austria going as it now continues into a 10th race.
George Russell led the cars off the line as the lights went off with Russell having to see off a strong start from Leclerc. Behind them Kimi Antonelli was finding it tough to stay on track and keep Lewis Hamilton and the championship leader’s off track venture at Turn 4 saw Lewis Hamilton squeeze past him and Hamilton went past his teammate as well to move into second place. Verstappen picked off Antonelli and Leclerc on the second lap going out of Turn 4 which saw Verstappen move into third place with Antonelli still struggling with grip. Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas was the first retirement of the race on lap 3 as his brakes went up in flames which saw him end his afternoon earlier than planned.
On the fringes of the points, Isack Hadjar got past Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson for eighth place. Two laps after Bottas’ retirement, the race went from bad to worse for Cadillac as Sergio Pérez retired as his car overheated. On track Antonelli kept the pressure on Leclerc for fourth place and after a couple of laps of battle, it was Antonelli storming past Leclerc at Turn 9. By lap 10, Russell had finally managed to put some gap between himself and Hamilton as he opened up a three second gap to the Ferrari driver and Hamilton was more under pressure from his old title rival, Verstappen. Verstappen pulled off an incredible late move on Hamilton, on lap 11, going on the inside of Hamilton at Turn 3 but Hamilton responded by getting back the place at Turn 4 as the two cars went side-by-side for a couple of corners before Hamilton managed to use the straight-line speed of the Ferrari and brought out his elbows to just about hold on to the second place.
Hamilton was the first to pit on lap 13, and after switching to the Hard compound, he rejoined in 11th place. The pit stops came in thick and thin from there on as Leclerc also came in for his stop as did the likes of Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz. Red Bull called in Verstappen for his stop on lap 19 as he went into the pits from second place which saw Antonelli move to second place to see a Mercedes 1-2 on track while Verstappen came out on track in sixth place, just behind Hamilton. Race leader, George Russell, came in for his stop on lap 20 which saw Antonelli take the lead of the race with McLaren bringing in Piastri the same lap as well. Russell rejoined in third place, ahead of Hamilton while Piastri joined the track in seventh place behind Leclerc.
Verstappen went on the inside of Hamiton once again on lap 22, going into Turn 3 and like the last time around, it was Hamilton retaking the place at Turn 4 but Verstappen responded at Turn 6 with an aggressive move going on the inside that saw him move to P3. The Yellow Flag came out on lap 25 with Antonelli just coming into the pits and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed as Carlos Sainz’s Williams gave up on the main straight with Antonelli missing out on a cheap stop just by a few corners. Hamilton got a stop out of the way under the Virtual Safety Car with Hamiton switching to the Soft compound from the Hard and once racing resumed it was Russell leading from Verstappen with Leclerc, Antonelli and Piastri making up the top five. On fresher tyres, Antonelli picked off Leclerc for third place on lap 30, heading into Turn 4. Just behind them Lewis Hamilton was also making up places and the seven-time world champion went past Isack Hadjar for P6 at Turn 4. By lap 35, Verstappen had brought down Russell’s lead to just over three seconds, which was over five seconds when the Virtual Safety Car had ended.
Piastri squeezed himself into fourth place going on the inside of Charles Leclerc at Turn 3 on lap 37 and Leclerc was immediately under pressure from his teammate, Hamilton, who got past Leclerc at Turn 6 going around the outside to move into fifth place while Leclerc lost two places in a lap and went straight into the pits to switch to the Hard compound. Verstappen up ahead had cut down Russell’s lead to 1.8 seconds as he continued to push Russell while Antonelli was struggling to keep up with the top two. On lap 43, Hamilton came in for his third stop while Piastri also came in for a stop with him with Piastri and Hamilton both rejoining in sixth and seventh place respectively. Russell also got his second stop done on the same lap and he rejoined in third place with Verstappen leading the race from Antonelli.
On a new set of tyres, Piastri got Leclerc for fifth place while Verstappen came in for his second stop on lap 49 with the Dutchman rejoining in third place, almost 11 seconds behind Russell. Russell got back his lead of the race on lap 51 when Mercedes called Antonelli in for his second stop and the young Italian came out behind Verstappen in third place. Hamilton meanwhile, kept moving up as he went past Leclerc for fifth place. A second Virtual Safety Car was deployed momentarily after the Williams of Alex Albon hit a bollard at Turn 3 but the VSC ended that lap itself with racing resuming instantly. Leclerc continued to lose places as Isack Hadjar went on the inside on the exit of Turn 4 to steal sixth place from the Ferrari driver after Leclerc had a small lock-up going into the turn. Struggling with tyre degradation, Leclerc dropped to eighth place on lap 60 as Norris also went past him, adding to Leclerc’s woes. Ferrari called in Leclerc for his third stop and the Ferrari driver switched to the Soft compound for the final 10 laps of the race.
With 10 laps to go, Russell held a comfortable gap of over five seconds from Verstappen as the Red Bull driver was struggling to catch the Mercedes. Antonelli, meanwhile, was making up time and space on Verstappen and brought the gap to Verstappen under three seconds by lap 67. Antonelli kept closing the gap to Verstappen while Russell eased on his own at the front. Verstappen managed to see off Antonelli to hold on to second place while Russell stormed to his second race win of the season, converting his pole position to win. Verstappen meanwhile finished second, going over the line only 0.3 seconds ahead of Antonelli. The top three eventually were just 1.9s clear of each other while Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth respectively. Isack Hadjar, Norris, Leclerc, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the points places with Racing Bulls walking away with another strong double points finish in Austria.
Russell’s win sees him move to P2 in the Drivers’ Standing, as he is now six points clear of Hamiton while Antonelli holds a lead of 40 points over his teammate at the top. Piastri’s fourth place finish sees him move to P4 in the standings, going a point clear of Leclerc and Norris while Verstappen is now only six points behind the Norris and Leclerc duo, both of whom are on 79 points. Racing continues as we have back-to-back race weekends with the grid moving to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix next weekend with Russell taking some extra confidence from his win, going into his home race.
