F1 in Austria: Starts off exciting, then goes the opposite way

A few more laps would have given Antonelli the chance to even catch up to Verstappen – the young Italian finished just two seconds behind the Red Bull. Russell takes second place in the standings, Antonelli’s third place means the gap remains wide, and Verstappen leaves his team’s home track with a smile on his face and a greater chance of staying in the game for a while longer.

Ferrari, on the other hand, had a very bad weekend. The FIA ​​determined that Ferrari’s engine was far behind the most powerful V6 in the field—Red Bull’s new in-house motor—so it was allowed two engine upgrades this season. Ferrari introduced the first of these in Austria with a new synthetic shale fuel that many believed would be the missing piece that would take the chassis and aero upgrades from Barcelona to the front of the pack.

It did not happen. During Friday’s practice session, Hamilton could finish no better than fifth, following various combinations of Mercedes, Verstappen and McLaren. On Saturday, Leclerc defeated him in qualifying to take second place on the grid, while Hamilton finished third. Antonelli was fourth, having had his final run aborted after Verstappen crashed and brought out a yellow flag at Turn 9.

Ferrari made a good start to the race, although the rocket-like lead they had enjoyed in the early races was long gone. But here Barcelona’s superior tire wear wore off and soon both red cars started losing time. Hamilton finished fifth, with Leclerc even further away in eighth. McLaren’s times were slightly less mediocre, finishing fourth (Oscar Piastri) and seventh (Lando Norris), while Isak Hadjar’s Red Bull finished sixth. Red Bull’s other F1 team, Racing Bulls, had the best performance of the rest by occupying the final two points positions, with Liam Lawson finishing ninth and Arvid Lindblad 10th.