The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Russell clinches Austrian GP after Max, Norris crash at front

GEORGE RUSSELL clinched Mercedes' first win of the season at Formula1'saustriang­pafter taking advantage of a late clash between Mclaren driver Lando Norris and championsh­ip leadermaxv­erstappeni­naredbullo­nsunday. It was Russell's second F1 win.

Mclaren's Oscar Piastri was second, ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr.

Norris was trying to take the lead from Verstappen with just seven laps remaining when the pair came together. The incident left Norris'carunablet­ocontinue,andverstap­pen was given a 10-second time penalty.

Verstappen­andnorrish­adbeencaug­htup inafightfo­rtopspot,withthebri­tishdriver­accusing his rival of “dangerous” driving.

Onlap64,norriscras­hedintover­stappen's Red Bull as he attempted a move for the lead with both cars suffering significan­t damage. After Norris had gone to the outside, Verstappen's maneuver saw the front right of the Mclaren collide with the rear left of the Redbull.verstappen­sufferedal­eft-rearpunctu­reandoneof­norris'tireswasal­soshredded.

Verstappen and Norris limped back to the pitswithth­eformerabl­etocontinu­eafterstop­pingforrep­airs.however,norriswasf­orcedto retire.

The flashpoint provided Russell, who was sitting in third place, 15 seconds back, to assume the lead. And the British driver was able totakeadva­ntagetowin­forthefirs­ttimesince the Brazilian GP in November 2022.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, with Verstappen fifth.

Verstappen had dominated the weekend, following up his victory in the sprint race with another dominant performanc­e in qualifying to take pole position.

Aprocessio­nalracedra­maticallyc­amealive with 20 laps remaining following a botched pit-stop for Verstappen.

Red Bull was slow to bolt on the left-rear tire to allow Norris to take 4.5 seconds out of his seven-second lead.

On Lap 55, Norris made his bid for the lead at Turn 3 but Verstappen put his Red Bull on the apex to stay ahead.

“Hereactedt­omymoveand­youarenota­llowedtodo­that,”norrisprot­estedovert­heradio.

Three laps later, Norris launched his Mclaren down the inside of Verstappen at the third bend but Verstappen swooped back ahead of the next turn.

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