George Russell picked up the pieces when Max Verstappen and Lando Norris clashed while battling over the lead to win the Austrian Grand Prix.
The two championship leaders fought for victory over several laps before they collided at turn three, damaging both cars and falling out of contention.
Russell took advantage to gain the lead and take Mercedes’ first grand prix victory since 2022, leading home Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz Jnr.
All 19 drivers who lined up on the grid for the start did so on medium tyres for their opening stint. When the lights went out, Verstappen duly kept the lead with Norris slotting into second. George Russell held third, while Lewis Hamilton gained fourth from Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Charles Leclerc clipped the rear of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren at the first corner, breaking his front wing. The Ferrari driver pitted for the new front wing, but fell down to 19th place.
Verstappen opened up a gap to Norris behind, quickly growing to over five seconds by the end of lap 12. The two leaders pitted together at the end of lap 23, but Norris argued his entry into his pit box was impeded by the Red Bull leaving his pit box. The stewards investigated the incident but determined no infringement had been committed.
With both Verstappen and Norris on hard tyres, Verstappen’s lead stabilised at around eight seconds, before Norris gradually began to reduce the gap as the pair navigated through lapped traffic. Verstappen complained that his hard tyres were falling away from him and he and Norris eventually pitted at the end of lap 51, but a slow stop for the leader allowed Norris to exit the pit lane just a few seconds behind.
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Norris got within DRS range of the leader and had a look into turn three, but Verstappen remained ahead. Norris stuck with the Red Bull and dived up the inside of turn three on lap 59, but ran off the track and was forced to hand the lead back to Verstappen.
Verstappen and Norris fought for several laps before Norris eventually looked to the outside at turn three. However, the two rivals made contact twice, giving both drivers punctures which forced them to crawl their damaged cars to the pit lane. Verstappen was able to continue, but was handed a ten second time penalty as a result of the collision. Norris was forced out of the race due to damage.
Through the drama, Russell inherited the lead as Piastri overtook Sainz to move up into second. With a handful of…
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