George Russell was able to once again taste the sweet reward of victory with a 1.6-second edge over Max Verstappen on Sunday to take home the checkered flag in the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, Austria.
Russell opened the 2026 F1 season with a thrilling win in Australia but had been unable to break through ever since. His results in the interim had included a pair of second-place finishes and two more top-four results as his championship bid appeared to be fading away.
With his seventh career victory Sunday and a critical 25 points after a finishing time of 1:26:37.979, Russell climbed back into second place in the drivers’ standings to trail five-time winner Kimi Antonelli for the top spot.
“It was tough,” Russell said of waiting to return to the top of the podium. “You feel like everything’s going against you. The performance isn’t as good as you want. … I sort of feel (like) myself again.”
Russell leveraged his pole position into the lead through the first tuen at the Red Bull Ring in the Styrian foothills, then held off all challengers from that point forward in his No. 63 Mercedes.
“It feels great,” Russell said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve sipped the champagne and had that sweetness.”
The drama unfolded behind him, where Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Verstappen were in a duel that culminated in Hamilton taking one pit stop too many. That dropped him into a fifth-place finish and third place in the overall standings.
Verstappen took exception to one particular stretch of the 11th lap, when his battle with Hamilton left him briefly in the gravel.
“That’s a penalty, a clear penalty,” Verstappen said.
Antonelli, who is also a Mercedes driver, finished in third, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri landed in fourth.
Befitting his ranking as F1’s points leader, Antonelli kept the pressure on his teammate and he finished within half a second of Verstappen.
“It was challenging,” Russell said. “(Antonelli) was really impressive. He forced me to box early.
“But the team called it perfectly.”
–Field Level Media
