F1: Russell wins Austrian GP after Verstappen and Norris Collide

Race leader Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided with 10 laps to go in the 2024 Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring, allowing the Mercedes of George Russell to come through to collect his 2nd F1 win.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Russell had no chance of winning the race until the two leaders collided, but sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

“Yabadabadoo!” he shouted on the radio.

“It isn’t over until it’s over!” he adds. And boy is he right. The Mercedes man was in the perfect position to capitalize after Norris and Verstappen’s battle for the win ended in a collision between the pair.

“Incredible. It was a tough fight out there at the beginning of the race, just to hold onto that P3 and I saw on the TV that Max and Lando was going pretty hard,” said Russell.

“I knew Lando would want to try and get that race win, but the team have done an amazing job to get us in this fight. You’ve got to be there at the end to pick up the pieces, and that’s where we were.”

On lap 59, Norris dove to the inside and locked up as Verstappen moved across, which meant the McLaren slid off into the runoff and he had to let the Red Bull by on the run to Turn 4.

Norris got a five-second time addition for traversing track limits a fourth time in his off, and Verstappen could have let Norris take the lead and he would have still won the race,  but this did not matter as the pair came to blows even before the penalty was dished out.

On lap 54, Norris moved to Verstappen’s outside as Turn 3 approached and when the Red Bull moved left, they touched and both went off with punctures, Verstappen to his left-rear and Norris his right-rear.

Both Verstappen and Norris sustained damage. Verstappen was able to rejoin the race but Norris had to retire.  Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty for the collision in 5th. It all fell apart for Verstappen when his 7-second advantage was reduced to under 2-seconds over Norris when his left-rear tire came off slow.

Oscar Piastri came home 2nd for McLaren, 2-seconds behind Russell. “A lot of what ifs and maybes, obviously starting from yesterday. I know that’s only my fourth podium in F1, but so close to a win – it hurts a little bit. Really good points, obviously. I think second half of the race we were coming on pretty strong and, yeah, happy with another podium. Just when it’s that close, you can’t help but hurt a little bit.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. was third for Ferrari, 5 seconds behind Russell. “Quite an eventful race up front no? For us it was all about trying to keep up with George. We knew the Mercedes today might have a bit of advantage on race pace. We tried everything to keep up with him and Oscar at the end was coming really quick. In the end P3, which I think is a good result. We can be quite happy and quite proud of that.”

Lewis Hamilton was 4th for Mercedes, 22 seconds behind Russell and Verstappen rounded out the top-5 after looking like a clear winner early.

Despite finishing 5th, Verstappen still extended his point lead over Norris to 81 points, 237 to 156 after Norris was forced to retire.

Nico Hulkenberg beat Sergio Perez to sixth, with Kevin Magnussen eighth in a double points finish for Haas.

Daniel Ricciardo took ninth for RB and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10 after prevailing in scrap with his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon.

It’s going to be a party atmosphere down at Mercedes after that win for Russell. That was the team’s first win since Russell’s victory at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

That slow pit stop and the titanic tussle that followed between Verstappen and Norris will live long in the memory, but particularly that Lap 64 clash. No doubt that will provoke plenty of debate with Verstappen hit with a 10-second time penalty afterwards.

2024 Austrian GP Results