Austrian GP: George Russell ends Mercedes win drought after Max Verstappen-Lando Norris collision

George Russell cashed in to take a completely unexpected Austrian GP win for Mercedes after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ battle for the lead ended in an acrimonious collision.

A rare slow Red Bull service on race leader Verstappen’s car at the second round of stops turned the complexion of the race on its head and put Norris, who had been six seconds behind before then, on the Dutchman’s tail in to the closing laps.

Norris had already twice expressed his anger with what he felt was Verstappen’s “unfair” defence of position, with the Red Bull driver also accusing his McLaren rival of trying over-ambitious moves, before the two made controversial contact as the Briton launched another bid for the lead on lap 64.

With the McLaren attempting to go around the outside of the Red Bull into the Turn Three braking zone, the two cars touched rear wheels – each suffering punctures – and went wide in to the run-off area before heading for emergency visits to the pits with their damaged cars.

While Norris was unable to continue and dropped out of the race, Verstappen returned to the track and finished in fifth place.

Verstappen was soon adjudged by stewards to have been at fault for the collision and handed a 10-second time penalty, although it did not change his fifth place result.

With Russell having run third for the majority of the race, the Briton gleefully took over the lead and completed the final laps to secure just his second career win in F1 – his and Mercedes’ first since November 2022.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended up a close second and left to rue what might have been after he had dropped from third to seventh on the grid after a track limits penalty on Saturday.

Carlos Sainz beat Lewis Hamilton, who had earlier served a five-second penalty for crossing the white line on the entry to his first pit stop, to the final podium berth for Ferrari.

On a sensational day for the Haas team, Nico Hulkenberg crossed the line in sixth and team-mate Kevin Magnussen eighth – the pair finishing ether side of Sergio Perez, whose struggles in the second Red Bull continued – in a bumper points day for the team which moves them into seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

More to follow…

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