Raceday Recap: A Heated Weekend in Austria
Willkommen to round 8 of the 2026 F1 season, this time in Spielberg. This weekend in Austria was a wild one, from qualifying drama on Saturday to some incredible overtake battles on Sunday! Let’s summarize everything you need to know.
Saturday’s Q3 session was a wild ride, as pole position was up for grabs, even as time was running out. After Lewis Hamilton took the fastest flying lap and his teammate Charles Leclerc set an even faster one, the Scuderia assumed that the front row was theirs, celebrating in the garage and cheering for their result. Then, an unexpected variable came into play: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crashed, bringing out the yellow flag. Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli saw the flag incorrectly and thought it was a double yellow, aborting his lap early in order to avoid being penalized. Meanwhile, George Russell was still on track and able to snatch the fastest lap time from Ferrari and start from the first grid spot the next day. Behind Russell, Ferrari managed to fill the 2nd and 3rd grid spots with Leclerc and Hamilton. Antonelli settled for 4th, with Max Verstappen starting from 5th and McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in 6th and 7th. Isack Hadjar occupied spot number 8, Liam Lawson qualified 9th, and rookie Arvid Lindblad went 10th fastest.
George Russell celebrating a successful qualifying position: spot number one. Photo courtesy of BBC.
On race day, turn 1 was, as always, a close call, as drivers were pushed off and back onto the track. Verstappen and Leclerc were both able to get ahead of other drivers, and the first 2 laps ended with Russell, Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc, and Antonelli in the top 5. On lap 3, Valtteri Bottas’ brakes caught on fire, and his teammate Checo Perez followed him into the pits to retire just a couple of minutes later. On lap 7, Antonelli overtook Leclerc into turn 9, showcasing just how badly the heat was affecting the Ferraris’ tire degradation and killing their performance ability. Hamilton began to lose time to Verstappen lap by lap, with the Dutchman passing him briefly on lap 11. The two drivers went side by side, and Hamilton pushed Verstappen to the edge of the track, causing him to brush the gravel and allowing Hamilton to get back ahead.
After the first round of pit stops,Verstappen and Hamilton sparred again for P3 on lap 23, with Verstappen “in the fight for victory for the first time this year.” Carlos Sainz’s Williams crashed out on lap 25 due to an electrical problem, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car and yellow flag and shutting down the pit entry as the marshals moved his car to safety. On lap 27, Kimi Antonelli radioed Bono to ask about a brake slip issue, still running in 4th. Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri caught up to the front of the pack and advanced to 5th place. Russell continued to pull farther ahead in front, with the advantage of fresher tires and perfectly working brakes, unlike his teammate. Antonelli began to fall back behind Charles Leclerc around lap 29, unable to get around him. On lap 38, Verstappen was inching closer to victory, only 1.9 seconds behind Russell in the lead. Fernando Alonso received a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and a handful of laps later, his teammate Lance Stroll retired from the race because of battery issues. Isack Hadjar passed Leclerc on lap 56, lunging by him on the straight.
Russell basking in his 2nd win of the season - and oh yeah, Verstappen and Antonelli are there too. Photo courtesy of RacngNews365.
In the end, George Russell came out on top for his 2nd win of the year, joined by Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli on the podium. Oscar Piastri settled for 4th, a great result for his season so far. Lewis Hamilton wound up in 5th, followed by a 6th place success for Isack Hadjar and 7th place for Lando Norris. Charles Leclerc took 8th, Liam Lawson took 9th, and Arvid Lindblad picked up the last point in P10. Both Ferraris did a 3 stop pit strategy, which may or may not have worked out in their favor - what do you think?
During the race, it was mentioned that Liam Lawson has only missed points on 2 occasions this season, which is why I hope he is here to stay. He went unnoticed in this Grand Prix for the most part, but ran in the points for the majority of the race and again pulled it off to score a few more for VCARB - yay! Let me know what you thought about this race, and don’t forget to follow @thewinningformulablog on Instagram. We just started a new message channel and it should be fun! As always, thanks so much for reading.
Lights out and away we go,
Lucy xx
