Lando Norris
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Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
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Aston Martin
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Alpine
Toto Wolff and Mercedes saw any threat from Ferrari quickly evaporate at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Charles Leclerc lined up on the front row alongside George Russell, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Kimi Antonelli in third. It looked as if Ferrari would fight Mercedes for the win again after Hamilton’s victory in Barcelona.
However, Hamilton ultimately finished fifth, just over 25 seconds behind race winner Russell, while Leclerc crossed the line 45 seconds down in P8.
Does George Russell’s Austrian GP win earn him Driver of the Day honours, or were you more impressed by one of his rivals?
Toto Wolff suspects Ferrari’s Austrian Grand Prix issues were down to ‘overheating’
Instead of Ferrari, Russell came under pressure from Max Verstappen in the heavily-upgraded Red Bull.
Verstappen battled his way past Hamilton and hunted Russell down, closing it to within 1.6 seconds by the end of the race.
The two Ferraris were the only drivers in the top eight who pitted three times but, unlike in Barcelona, the aggressive strategy didn’t pay off.
Asked about their poor performance by Sky Sports, Wolff said: “I heard they were overheating a little bit but they didn’t look at all like they looked in Barcelona last week. I am not sure why.”
George Russell wins the Austrian Grand Prix! What was your main takeaway from the race?
Hamilton was repeatedly told to change engine modes during the race, with Ferrari expressing concerns over reliability. He remains the only driver to complete every racing lap this season, but the SF-26 was struggling in the 33-degree Spielberg heat.
Both Russell and Antonelli have a DNF this year, which helped Hamilton climb into the top two in the championship before this race. But he has now slipped back to third, six behind Russell and 46 behind Antonelli.
Encouragingly for Mercedes, Ferrari introduced an engine upgrade in Austria but still struggled on what is a bona fide power circuit. The Silver Arrows’ advantage in that department remains.
Third-place finisher Antonelli noticed Ferrari deploying ‘weirdly’, so it may be that they didn’t optimise the tools at their disposal.
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