Russell puts Austria on ice: Mercedes remains the benchmark, Verstappen saves Red Bull, Ferrari takes a step back

The middle phase was the crux of Sunday’s race. Russell seemed to be in control, but then his lead over Verstappen began to shrink: a lock-up at the hairpin, a few less-than-perfect laps, and a dip in tyre management. It was there, not in the final laps, that Verstappen came closest to victory. Red Bull thought they could push Russell into a margin for error. Mercedes responded with the most rational choice: a second pit stop, fresh tyres, and a solid strategy. The pit crew turned Russell’s race around.

The finale turned the tables. It was no longer Verstappen catching Russell, but Antonelli who was, perhaps, catching Verstappen. The World Championship leader finished third, with clear regrets: “I was too aggressive in the opening laps,” he admitted himself, before being affected by the timing of the Virtual Safety Car and a problem with the brake pedal. At Spielberg, this is no minor issue: the brakes suffer due to the altitude and constant strain. If the pedal stretches, the driver loses confidence at the very moment he needs to lift off at the limit. Antonelli limited the damage; he did not deliver the full response expected of a leader.

This doesn’t faze him: Antonelli remains top of the World Championship standings, has five wins to his name in 2026, and displays a rare quality in the paddock: modesty. When he makes a mistake, he admits it. But Austria marks the first real weekend of friction in his season. Russell has closed the gap by ten points and has become the second key figure in Mercedes’ potential world championship challenge.

The three-pointed star isn’t leaving Austria with just a win and a third place. In fact, it returns home with a wonderful yet complicated problem: two title contenders. Antonelli remains the leader, but Russell is no longer just the strong team-mate who takes points off him. He is the rider who won in Australia, has paid dearly for a few missteps this season, and is now truly back in the title race on the eve of Silverstone. In such a long season, 40 points are certainly not enough to set the internal pecking order in stone, especially bearing in mind the ‘historic’ preference that British teams have for riders holding the same passport as the team.

Ferrari’s response is harsher than the finishing order suggests. After Barcelona, the Scuderia faced two questions: whether Hamilton could turn his victory into a title challenge, and whether Leclerc could remain part of the same narrative. Austria provided a negative answer to both. Hamilton was more than just vital: he overtook Leclerc at the start, battled with Verstappen, and made up ground on the soft tyres after the Virtual Safety Car, but finished fifth, over 26 seconds behind. It is Ferrari’s worst result of the season. Barcelona remains a genuine blow, not yet a trend.

Leclerc’s result is the most disappointing. He started second and finished eighth. In the first stint, he was overtaken by Antonelli; in the second, he was targeted by Piastri, Hamilton, Hadjar and Norris. In short, Ferrari had raised hopes on Saturday (slow on Friday, but a solid qualifying session, thanks in part to the first power unit update), yet in the race it failed to measure up. The conclusions are clear: the team is competitive again; Vasseur – not without his critics – continues to smile broadly on Saturdays, but in practice the team is not in control of its own destiny. And the internal rivalry at Maranello is becoming more uncomfortable with every Sunday, with Leclerc continuing to lose ground even to his team-mate.

McLaren didn’t put in a championship-winning performance, but it was a more consistent race than Ferrari’s. Piastri in fourth and Norris in seventh show that the reigning champions haven’t dropped off the radar of the frontrunners. But consistency is no longer enough: in 2026, the World Championship will reward those who turn difficult weekends into victories. McLaren doesn’t seem to be there yet: if anything, it’s competing with the ‘midfield’ teams, at least coming out on top against Hadjar in sixth and Lawson in ninth, who round off the Faenza-based ‘backmarkers’. Cadillac endured yet another brutal Sunday: Bottas and Perez were out early due to brake and cooling issues. But in such a hot Grand Prix, thermal management becomes a stress test for the design: Aston Martin, for example, remains the worst-performing team, even though Alonso at least manages to finish, a dismal three laps down, as the very last driver lapped by Ocon and Albon, two laps behind, just like in the 1970s, whilst moving up from ninth to fifth – though without the dignity of having completed a full lap, unlike the top eight.

The Austrian Grand Prix therefore does not change the championship leader, but it does begin to hint at a possible shift in the championship’s dynamics. Antonelli remains top, but is no longer untouchable. Russell returns to second place, six points ahead of Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, and heads into the Silverstone race with a victory worth more than the 25 points. Hamilton consequently loses ground, but remains the last non-Mercedes driver to have scored over 100 points: 171, 131 and 125 make up the virtual podium, whilst to find the fourth-placed driver, Piastri, you have to go down to 80, followed by Norris and Leclerc on 79. Leclerc is therefore overtaken by his two papaya-coloured teammates in terms of political clout this season and can ‘feel’ Verstappen’s breath on his neck, six points behind – still some way off in terms of numbers, but close in terms of significance.