George Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix thanks to a two-stop strategy. The Mercedes driver crossed the line ahead of Max Verstappen, with the Dutch Red Bull driver managing to keep Kimi Antonelli behind him in third. The Italian nevertheless retains the lead in the drivers’ championship.
The race at Spielberg took place today in conditions of extreme heat. Temperatures at the Red Bull Ring reached 36°C, while the track surface was at 55°C at the start of the Grand Prix.
On the eve of the race, the fastest strategy was predicted to be a two-stop, and that proved to be the case. Only Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly opted for a three-stop approach, while all the other drivers stopped twice.
Almost the entire grid started on Medium tyres. The only exceptions were Carlos Sainz and Gabriel Bortoleto, who started on Softs. The first four drivers across the line all adopted the same strategy, running two stints on Hard tyres after the opening stint on Mediums.
Russell secured victory with a margin of 1.611 seconds over Verstappen, while Antonelli finished just over three tenths behind the four-time world champion. Thanks to his win in Austria, Russell moves up to second in the championship, 40 points behind his team-mate. Kimi Antonelli leads the standings with 171 points.
DARIO MARRAFUSCHI - PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR1
“All three compounds available came into play today in the two- and three-stop strategies adopted by the teams at Spielberg. As expected, a one-stop strategy was not viable due to the high level of thermal degradation.
The two-stop strategies, on Hard and Medium tyres, were largely determined by the sets of tyres available to each team, carried over from Friday. The most effective approach proved to be the one that used Hard tyres for the final two stints, as adopted by the podium finishers.
Ferrari once again tried something different, stopping three times and also using the Soft, which, aided by a lower fuel load, delivered a solid performance.
While the first stop for the Ferrari drivers and Gasly was brought forward to exploit the undercut, the rest of the grid followed the pit windows we had anticipated. Conversely, the overcut attempted by some did not produce the desired results.
Even the VSC caused by Sainz did not change the picture, except perhaps for Antonelli, who pitted slightly early, losing the time advantage of stopping under neutralised conditions.
With such high track temperatures, the tyres experienced neither graining nor blistering, a sign that the development work carried out by Pirelli is clearly paying off on track.”
