George Russell reveals radio tip-off about Max Verstappen vs Lando Norris scrap

George Russell was told via team radio that he could win the F1 Austrian Grand Prix, before Lando Norris’ early retirement.

McLaren’s Norris was vying for victory but his race ended early after contact with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

That controversial incident opened the door for Mercedes’ Russell to convert into his second F1 grand prix victory.

“I was just trying to focus on just maximising my driving, to be honest,” Russell said about Verstappen and Norris eventually coming into view ahead of him.

“Marcus, my engineer, said three laps before, 'they’re fighting really hard and we can win this'.

“And I said, look, we need to sort of secure P3 first, let me drive. And I knew Oscar was fast behind.

“And then when I got into the lead, I knew it was going to be a challenging last six laps.

“My tyres were difficult. That VSC helped marginally because my tyres were overheating and that just allowed me to cool them down.

“But it’s a bit of a strange one to win a race like this, for sure. But as I said, it’s racing. Sometimes it goes against you.

“I feel like we’ve probably missed out on one or two possibilities of victories.

“Montreal was won, arguably Singapore, things could have gone very slightly differently last year and today it went for us. So it’s how the cookie crumbles.”

Russell still needed to hold off the challenge of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to ensure he won at the Red Bull Ring.

“I thought he was going to catch, to be honest,” Russell admitted.

“But I think catching is one thing, overtaking is another.

“So I had Carlos behind me for 10 laps yesterday in my DRS and I was also behind Carlos for about eight laps in his DRS and overtaking wasn’t straightforward.

“So I knew, I just sort of said to myself, do what you do best, no heroics and you’ll win this race.”

George Russell reacts to offset strategy

Russell said about the final laps with Verstappen and Norris no longer in the mix: “I think the difficulty was we were approaching a lot of backmarkers and we were interacting a lot with them.

“And if you get fortunate with the position, you get the DRS turn one and then into turn three and into turn four and you can gain six tenths.

“If you’re unfortunate, you could maybe lose six tenths. So you could have a 1.2 second difference just on where you catch the back markers.

"And when there was only two seconds between Oscar and I, that was probably the most nerve-wracking.”

Russell hailed his win as the best strategically that Mercedes have delivered for him all season.

“Yeah, without doubt. I think we really executed everything really well,” he said.

“I think every session we maximised, qualified as high as we think was truly possible.

“Race starts have been good. P4 in the race yesterday was the maximum. P3, realistically, was the maximum and the deserving result today.

“You know, the team did a great job, so it’s nice when you get a reward for all that hard work.”

Russell was offset strategically and ran a medium tyre in the middle of the grand prix. He was asked if it aided him against Piastri in the closing stages.

“I don’t think it helped at all, to be honest,” he answered.

“I think it’s difficult. I think we split the strategies with Lewis just to try something.

“You never know how the race is going to pan out, and, you know, VSC safety cars have a big factor.

“That VSC at the end was quite handy for me. It allowed me to cool my tyres down, and then my pace against Oscar the last five laps was the same when he had the medium.

“So, you know, the car’s been feeling really good. We know we’ve got a little bit of work still to do if we want to consistently be in that fight for the podium, but looking at the steps we’ve made versus Ferrari, versus Aston Martin, it’s been pretty huge since Bahrain.”

Russell added about his path to victory: “It was very windy out there, and I think the car was feeling a little bit strange on my laps to the grid.

“We checked everything, and everything was fine, but the pace felt strong.

“I had, you know, Lewis attack me early in the race, but then once I got back past him, I got a bit of a gap to Carlos.

“I knew Oscar was going to be quick, and he sort of came a little bit out of nowhere towards the end of the race. 

“On those hard tyres for me was pretty difficult, and then suddenly I had Toto screaming in my ear, you know, you can win this, and almost crashed when he screamed into my ears it was that loud, but I think it just goes to show the passion that we all share, and, you know, it’s obviously been a tough couple of years for us. You know, it feels great to be back on the top step.”