George Russell will look to turn his controversial pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix into a first F1 race win for 111 days as he looks to close the gap to his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
Russell won the season opener in Australia but has largely struggled since, while teenage phenom Antonelli has racked wins to lead the championship and a resurgent Lewis Hamilton has also leapfrogged him to lie second in the overall standings.
Thus, this weekend in Spielberg offers Russell a golden opportunity after he took pole following Max Verstappen’s crash at the penultimate corner in qualifying. The incident brought out single yellow flags in the final seconds but the Brit stormed through to best Charles Leclerc’s time by 0.236 seconds and stewards opted to take no further action for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags.
Leclerc will join him on the front row, with the Ferrari of Hamilton in third and Antonelli in fourth, with Verstappen fifth. It’s the second race in a row that Russell has been on pole but he ultimately finished second at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP a fortnight ago, so will look to go one better.
Follow all the action from the Austrian Grand Prix with our live blog below:
George Russell clinches controversial Austria GP pole after Max Verstappen crashes out
It was certainly an eventful qualifying session yesterday!
Max Verstappen’s crash at the penultimate corner, leading Ferrari to celebrate a presumed pole for Charles Leclerc, only for George Russell to surge through amid the yellow flags to best him by 0.236s
Stewards looked at the incident and opted to take no further action for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags, while Kimi Antonelli wrongly chose to slow down and ended fourth on the grid.
Read the full report for all the madness in Spielberg:
Russell clinches controversial Austria GP pole after Verstappen crash
Russell’s lap denied Ferrari a 1-2 on the starting gridLuke Baker28 June 2026 12:16
Austrian Grand Prix – live
Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the latest F1 race – the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.
There was plenty of dram in qualifying yesterday, which ended with George Russell on pole, so let’s get to it all
Luke Baker28 June 2026 12:11