Austrian Grand Prix: Relief for George Russell as he takes second win of the season

Russell’s win was based on what happened at the end of that qualifying session. In fact, the fate of the three drivers who eventually battled it out was effectively sealed in Saturday’s final session when they combined for ninth at the turn in the dying seconds.

Max Verstappen crashed out, due to an aerodynamic problem at the rear of his car, Red Bull said.

Antonelli misread the light boards near the track and thought he had to come back from the lap to get a double yellow flag.

Russell read them carefully, and picked up only as much as he needed. That combined with the quality of the laps up to that point put him on pole with Antonelli and Verstappen fourth and fifth.

Had they each reached their potential, perhaps Russell-Antonelli-Verstappen would have lined up for the Grand Prix and battled from the start. Instead, Russell had breathing space as Verstappen and Antonelli battled past the Ferrari, and that was enough.

But that doesn’t mean the outcome would have been different. Mercedes calculated the pace of the top three finishers to be very similar, with the difference at the end as Verstappen closed in on Russell while Antonelli closed in on both tire life.

But if so, that’s it. As it happened, Antonelli would track his time and place in the first two laps, where he spent as much time off the track as he did and dropped to fifth place. Verstappen had to find a way past the Ferraris.

Even then, the race opened with pit stops and strategy.

The deciding point for Russell and Verstappen as they battled it out was the timing of the second pit stop. Verstappen was closed by 1.3 seconds when Russell overtook the Mercedes on lap 43.

It was still time, and Russell knew the remaining 28 laps were a lot to ask of the tires. But he saved track position and proved Red Bull had to run Verstappen longer to build tire compensation to get back at Russell in the remaining laps.

Had Red Bull caught Verstappen on that lap, the positions would have been reversed and Verstappen would probably have won.

Likewise Antonelli. He ran longer in both first and second stops. Fortunately, if Mercedes had waited a lap before their first stop, the virtual safety car called for Carlos Sainz’s stricken Williams would have caught on. And that could have made him a winner.