Max Verstappen may have won Austrian Grand Prix without error from FIA marshal

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George Russell may have won the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, but he arguably wasn’t the fastest driver.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Russell’s Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli both finished within two seconds after hunting down car 63 in the final stint.

“I think it is fair to say Kimi Antonelli was the fastest guy out there and perhaps Max Verstappen was a little faster than George Russell,” Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports after the race. “Starting positions do matter.”

Does George Russell’s Austrian GP win earn him Driver of the Day honours, or were you more impressed by one of his rivals?

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George Russell may have lucked into Austrian GP win as Max Verstappen cruelly denied

Russell’s victory ensures the debate over his controversial pole lap will continue. The Mercedes driver improved his lap time on his second Q3 run despite the yellow flag caused by Verstappen’s crash at the end of the lap.

The stewards were satisfied that Russell had lifted enough to satisfy the single yellow, with the Briton adamant he had lost multiple tenths. He was marginally slower in the final sector than he had been on his first Q3 lap, but was still quicker than both Ferraris (who qualified second and third).

Given that Russell didn’t even face an investigation, perhaps the bigger question is why the crash only prompted a single yellow (lift off and exercise caution) rather than a double (slow down and be prepared to stop).

BBC Sport pundit Sam Bird has heard from ‘sources’ in the paddock that a trackside marshal made a mistake.

“We’ve been speaking to some sources and it seems like, potentially, the marshal on that corner, in that marshals’ post, has immediately gone to the yellow flag,” he said on the Chequered Flag podcast.

“It’s then been flagged by the FIA, they’ve then overruled and it said it should be a double-waved yellow flag, but that’s 20 seconds or so later.”

Russell was fourth on the provisional grid when Verstappen hit the wall. Had the double yellows been shown, he would have had to back off, like teammate Antonelli did instinctively.

Verstappen was a pole contender before the crash, which Red Bull put down to an issue at the rear of the car, rather than driver error.

If Russell was only one spot ahead, rather than four, at the start of the race, Verstappen would likely have taken the victory. The former was reliant on the gap he opened up early on when the Ferraris behind were struggling.

As Mekies said, ‘starting positions do matter’. Ultimately, this was a weekend where Verstappen drove well enough to win but was denied by a truly bizarre set of circumstances.