The preview called Austria an audit of Red Bull’s season. It turned into a small act of defiance instead. On the circuit that carries their name, Max Verstappen dragged a car that has been seventh-best all year onto the second step of the podium - the loudest cheer of the weekend, and the closest thing to a home win the hosts were going to get.
But the win itself was never in doubt. George Russell took pole on Saturday, led every lap that mattered on Sunday, and crossed the line 1.6s clear for his second victory of 2026. Mercedes leave Spielberg with another one of those weekends where the question isn’t whether they win, but which of their drivers does.
The race
George Russell made it look routine. Pole, a clean launch, and a lead he managed rather than defended for all 71 laps. It’s his second win of the year after Canada, and the second time in 2026 he has converted a Saturday pole into a Sunday that the rest of the field only watched. Mercedes now have six wins from eight.
The drama was behind him. Max Verstappen started fifth and was second by the flag, picking off the cars ahead through Spielberg’s braking zones - exactly the corners the preview flagged as the lap’s decision-makers. It’s only his second podium of the season, but doing it at the Red Bull Ring, with the grandstands in orange and blue, is the result the team needed to point to after a brutal run of Sundays.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed the podium from fourth on the grid and took fastest lap (1:10.374) for good measure. The championship leader didn’t have the pace to fight Russell and didn’t need it - third place and the bonus point stretch his advantage back out, and his seventh podium in eight rounds is the kind of consistency that wins titles long before the maths says so.
The race of the day belonged to Oscar Piastri , who climbed from seventh to fourth and was the only car in the top group to gain meaningful ground - a quietly important result for a McLaren team that has spent a month watching others score. Lewis Hamilton went the other way, sliding from third on the grid to fifth at the flag, and Isack Hadjar again outscored the narrative, sixth from eighth in the other Red Bull. Lando Norris took seventh.
The weekend’s worst story was Charles Leclerc . He qualified second, started alongside Russell with a real shot at the front row converting to a podium, and finished eighth - 45 seconds adrift, beaten by both McLarens, both Red Bulls and the sister Ferrari. Whatever happened to the car after lights out, it turned the brightest Ferrari Saturday in weeks into the team’s flattest Sunday. Liam Lawson and rookie Arvid Lindblad took the last two points for the RB team, both a lap down.
The DNFs
- Valtteri Bottas - lap 2, Cadillac
- Sergio Pérez - lap 4, Cadillac
- Carlos Sainz - lap 23, Williams
- Lance Stroll - lap 45, Aston Martin
Both Cadillacs were gone inside the first four laps - a miserable afternoon for the season’s newest team on one of the calendar’s shortest races.
The championship
Russell’s win lifts him past Hamilton into second, and the top of the table is now an all-Mercedes affair - 171 to 131, a 40-point gap, with the rest of the field more than 90 points off the lead. Behind the silver cars the midfield of the championship has compressed into a knot: Piastri, Leclerc and Norris are covered by a single point at 80-79-79, with Verstappen six further back. Four drivers, four points, one of the few genuine fights 2026 has left to offer.
Silverstone is next on 5 July - faster, longer, and a real test of whether Spielberg was a Red Bull revival or just a good day at the office.