George Russell has won the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix in a race that had as much racing action as post-race smug from George Russell. Talking of smug, our Austrian Grand Prix Result Summary is full of bravado and daring for 1am.
This 2026 Austrian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered watching live in the parts of the planet where it’s night time, or don’t have enough time regardless of time zone.
Austrian Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – QUALIFYING
On the oversized Go Kart track that is the Austrian Grand Prix it was George Russell who took pole position for a second race in a row, gaining a little momentum over his Championship leading team mate Kimi Antonelli who qualified only fourth this time. Similar for Charles Lecelerc who responded to Lewis Hamilton’s recent upper-hand grabbing by out-qualifying him. Racing Bulls doing as impressive a job and McLaren where underwhelming in the second half of the top ten. At the tail both Cadillacs out-qualified the Aston Martins.
GRID AFTER Q3 – RUS LEC HAM ANT VER NOR PIA HAD LAW LIN
Setting the scene – RACEDAY
There’s a heatwave going on across Europe and Austria hasn’t missed out. It’s 38 degrees in parts of Austria, and this could cause all types of problems, which is exactly what we want.
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Goerge Russell waits a really long time for all the cars to get ready, by the time they do he gets away well and swerves right to cut off Leclerc. Heading into the sharp third corner where an accident is guaranteed the field exited intact amazingly although a few cars like Antonelli ran a little wide. Heading into the next corner and Lewis Hamilton sneaks by his teammate to grab second place.
ORDER – RUS HAM LEC ANT VER PIA NOR LAW HAD LIN
Lap 2 – Kimi Antonelli dives up the inside of Charles Leclerc into turn one but runs off the track again and gives the position back as the approach turn three, which allows Max Verstappen to join the party as they drive through and leave turn three. Verstappen does get past Antonelli on the short straight and then nails Leclerc out of turn five. With all that going on the McLarens are all over the back of Antonelli, side by side behind the Mercedes, but Kimi stays in front and on track for the remainder of the lap.
ORDER – RUS HAM VER LEC ANT PIA NOR LAW HAD LIN
Lap 3 – Valtteri Bottas radios that his brakes are on fire, he retires in pitlane for another pointless afternoon.
Lap 4 – Even more concerning later that lap is Liam Lawson radioing that his car itself is on fire. He is overtaken by Isack Hadjar on lap 4, so being on fire somewhere probably doesn’t help. We can’t see the fire, but unlike most of the injuries at the Football World Cup, are pretty sure the driver wouldn’t be over-exaggerating.
Lap 6 – The race has settled down now, with the overtaking stopped and we presume Liam Lawson’s car is still of fire but he keeps driving, George Russell sets a fastest lap as he leads by two seconds to Lewis Hamilton.
Lap 7 – The overtaking between Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli resumes as they battle around lap seven. Kimi has several near misses before nailing Leclerc before the second last corner. There could be more demotion of Ferraris with Max Verstappen stalking Lewis Hamilton.
Lap 11 – Max Verstappen dives up the inside of Lewis Hamilton into turn three, but Lewis Hamilton gets him back by turn five as they both lock brakes into the corner. The Ferrari and Red Bull run side by side for the rest of the lap in some fine racing, and unlike the championship battle a few years ago, without tears. Although, Max requests a penalty on the radio. It looked hard but fair, but who knows. Great racing anyways. This oversized Go Kart track living up to its reputation.
Lap 13 – Pit stops time, Lewis Hamilton first and Charles Leclerc on the following lap are the most important. Hamilton drops from 2nd to 11th. Leclerc from 4th to 11th after Hamilton makes up two positions in the meantime.
Lap 18 – Waiting on other front runners to pit, and the longer it takes for another of the top cars to pit, the more chance it looks like Ferrari have stuffed another race strategy. Who knows, maybe they know more that us, but they do have form.
Lap 19 – Max Verstappen does pit on lap 19, and he rejoins behind Lewis Hamilton by about two seconds, so advantage Ferrari for now, until they race again, and hopefully they do.
Lap 20 – Mercedes and McLarens all start to pit, the race leader Russell rejoins third while Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris enjoy some breathing room at the front. Lando Norris do so two laps later and runs wide after his stop, and across the whole process has lost a position to Isack Hadjar.
Lap 22 – Stewards advise that they are looking into the Hamilton-Verstappen scrap and that Hamilton forced Verstappen off the track. On track Max Verstappen steals Lewis Hamitlon’s place into turn three again, and Lewis again re-takes the position into turn five. Again they run side by side and again Max Verstappen gets past Hamilton. Fantastic racing and Max clears out a little.
Lap 24 – Yellow Flag, Carlos Sainq has parked his Williams along pit straight. We presume it is a DNF but maybe he doesn’t like driving the car today, it’s not as if it is that competitive. We can’t even tell you what position he retired from his weekend has been so obscure. Kimi Antonelli pits from the lead and when he leaves the pits a Virtual Safety Car has been called. Ferrari try to call Lewis Hamilton in just as he passes the pit lane, but the Ferrari does come in a lap later which seems odd. All it does is drop Hamilton down the field and now he’s on soft tyres with over 40 laps left. The front five cars are on hard tyres.
ORDER – RUS VER LEC ANT PIA HAD HAM NOR LIN LAW
Lap 29 – The next, battle to talk about is Kimi Antonelli trying to steal Charles Leclerc’s third place. Lewis Hamilton is also battling Isack Hadjar too with added Oscar Piastri not far in front of that duo.
Lap 30 – Double overtaking for the fans and a win and a loss for Ferrari. Antonelli gets past Charles Leclerc for third while Lewis Hamilton demotes Hadjar to 7th.
ORDER – RUS VER ANT LEC PIA HAM HAD NOR LIN LAW
Lap 34 – Oscar Piastri closes in on Charles Leclerc and the other Ferrari closes in on him. Whilst being the meat in a Ferrari sandwich does sounds good and delicious, Piastri will hoping to get past Leclerc soon or face losing a position to Hamilton.
Lap 37 – Oscar Piastri gets past Charles Leclerc into turn three. Piastri is well past when Leclerc turns in on him and they slightly touch Ferrari front wheel to back of McLaren. Just to complete the misery Lewis Hamilton takes his position as well. Then Leclerc pits and drops to 8th behind a quiet-ish Lando Norris.
Lap 40 – Lewis Hamilton is chasing Piastri for 4th place but loses time as he has a huge moment as the Ferrari snaps with oversteer mid fast corner. Good save, and he’ll be back for more. Further ahead the Red Bull of Max Verstappen is gaining on George Russell.
Lap 41 – Fernando Alonso gets a five second penalty from the stewards. He’s dead last so probably doesn’t care. And five seconds? Pffft, the Aston Martin car itself is a good 30-60 second penalty in race trim this season. Luckily the action is so good up front today that we don’t need to look too far down for points of interest.
Lap 43 – Piastri and Hamilton both pit and they rejoin behind Charles Leclerc, and a lap later George Russell from the lead and drops to third.
ORDER – VER ANT RUS NOR LEC PIA HAM HAD LIN LAW
Lap 49 – Oscar Piastri passes Charles Leclerc for fourth into turn three, Piastri’s tyres so fresher and cleaner.
Lap 50 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead and drops behind Russell who has pitted and is second, and Kimi who has not stopped and leading temporarily.
Lap 54 – There’s potential for rain coming. Happy days. Just when the race looks like it is about to settle in for the dull post final stops stint snore-fest.
ORDER – RUS VER ANT PIA HAM LEC HAD NOR LAW LIN
Lap 56 – Isack Hadjar and Charles Leclerc argue over 6th place and after the initial passing move is blocked by the back of a fan’s head, the two cars jostle for a few corners and the Red Bull gains a place. Leclerc immediately radios to his team that his tyres are “F’d” which is a technical term for worn. Lando Norris looks to be joining in on the Leclerc pile-on. Poor Charles. Lando takes his 7th place a few laps later.
Lap 67– Not much has happened in the last ten laps, either through drivers and teams settling for what they have or we fell asleep. Either way Max Verstappen is trying to provide some last race action by catching George Russell for a win. There’s 3.5 seconds in it with three laps to go. He’s not going that fast sadly.
Lap 70 – The battle for the lead is no longer the most interesting, it is Max Verstappen coming under threat from Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes is within the one second barrier going into the final lap.
FINAL LAP – Despite David Croft’s kettle-boiling levels of steam releasing, the top three remain as they were and George Russell gets a moral boosting win over Max Verstappen who will be thankful it was the final lap as Kimi Antonelli almost passes him as they cross the line. The top three covered by a few seconds. Further back not much order changing in the last section of the race.
FINAL ORDER – RUS VER ANT PIA HAM HAD NOR LEC LAW LIN
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – GEORGE RUSSELL
Hard to argue with a pole position and trouble-free race at the front. Getting some points and a little momentum back from his team mate which he desperately needed.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAx VERSTAPPEN- Some outstanding racing in a car that is fourth-best at the moment. His second place was well earned and he even pushed for victory as well as defended second place at the end. Driver who most outperformed the car of the top four teams this weekend.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Race result is a nice change to beat his team mate and some other good drivers.
RACING BULLS – A solid top ten in qualifying and the race is best case scenario this weekend and they did it.
THE GRAPE-EST – CHARLES LECLERC
Just when it looked like he had wrestled some of the momentum back from a surging Lewis Hamilton with second in qualifying, Leclerc had a poor race. Overtaken a few too many times, and below average strategy didn’t help, it rarely does. This could really apply to Ferrari as a team, who were meant to be fast with special tricks and everything. Finished 5th and 8th.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINz –Could have gone to anyone who DNFd but we guess the Williams and driver combination is the most disappointing in comparison to last season.
ASTON MARTIN – Outqualified by Cadillac, Lance Stroll DNF, Fernando Alonso last and three laps down.
CADILLAC – Double DNF, Bottas’ brakes on fire after a couple of laps.
BROKEN KEYBOARD LETTERS – Our keyboard has two letters that are broken and required some dodgy copy and paste to correct. It’s only when you need those letters when you realise how much you do need them.
MIDFIELD – The midfield were a bit quiet today.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 1 / 5
It’s hard to compete with the Football World Cup.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 8 / 10
Some great racing at times at the sharp end of the grid for a change.
ANY SURPRISES? – 2 / 5
Not really. Verstappen’s racing seemed to outperform the car a little, and that’s hardly surprising from the Dutchman himself.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 2 / 5
A little fightback from George Russell v Kimi Antonelli but nothing huge. Ferrari drop off in the race makes their challenge for titles a little weaker.
ENDING – 3 / 5
Pretty interesting finish as the top three closed on each other.
OVERALL RATING – 16 / 30
The race was good and full of action, but there’s no great conclusions to be drawn from it. Now we head to the British GP where the Sky F1 coverage will be almost insufferable with three potential winning British drivers.
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