By Shawn Corcoran

SPIELBERG, Austria — The 2026 Formula 1 season is now eight rounds in and we have seen quite the story play out so far. We have seen a young driver take the championship lead, while other drivers struggle and the greats get back into form. This year’s trip to the Red Bull Ring saw yet another interesting chapter in the 2026 season, as George Russell returns to form.

George Russell Gets His Second Victory of The Year

George Russell was set for a promising season right from the start. Mercedes had demonstrated early on that their car was the strongest on the grid, and Russell was the favorite for the Drivers’ Championship going into the season. He lived up to these expectations with a victory in the season opener in Australia.

Things soon took a turn from there. Russell’s young teammate, Kimi Antonelli won the next race in China, then extended that victory into a five-race winning streak, giving himself an early, and decisive, lead in the WDC standings. 

This stretch of races proved to be frustrating for Russell as he found himself facing a slower pace than his teammate, reliability issues, and on a few occasions he even had to go wheel-to-wheel with Antonelli. All while he slowly lost ground in the standings. 

Austria proved to be a much better weekend for the British driver. He managed to get pole position in qualifying this weekend. This was in spite of a possible yellow-flag infringement after Max Verstappen crashed during qualifying. 

Russell was able to maintain pole position at the start of the race, fending off Charles Leclerc, who tried to get past the Mercedes on the start. Russell settled into a strong rhythm, leading for most of the Grand Prix.

As the race came down to its closing laps, Russell wasn’t out of the woods yet. Russell had pitted one more time prior to Max Verstappen, getting a fresh set of tyres in order to keep his pace up while Verstappen and Antonelli closed in on Russell’s lead.

With each passing lap, the top three drivers got closer and closer to each other. By the last lap, Russell, Verstappen and Antonelli were all within two seconds of each other. Russell held on to claim his first victory since the season opener in Australia. Meanwhile, Antonelli finished in third.

Max Verstappen Gets His Best Finish of The Year

Max Verstappen has had a frustrating season under the new regulations. He has faced issues keeping up with other top contenders, as well as facing several reliability problems. He had managed just one podium finish entering Austria, with a third place finish in Canada.

This weekend got off to an equally, if not more frustrating start. Verstappen was unable to further improve his qualifying time at Red Bull’s home track after going off the track, bouncing over the gravel and ending up in the barriers during qualifying.

It is safe to say that the Dutch driver found a way to bounce back from that qualifying round. Although he qualified at P5, he was able to maintain a strong pace and work his way through the crowd. Verstappen found himself in a couple of battles with Lewis Hamilton, trading places a couple of times but in the end, Verstappen managed to get ahead and maintain a better pace over the Ferrari. Verstappen managed to make his way up to second place in order to battle George Russell for the race lead. 

Verstappen was gaining on Russell lap after lap, but also had the challenge of defending against Kimi Antonelli who was fast approaching. Verstappen managed to hold off Antonelli, but was unable to catch Russell. He got within 1.5 seconds of the race leader on the last lap, but by then there was not enough race left to catch up, and Verstappen finished second. This still marks his best finish of the season.

A Frustrating Race for Some

Not everyone shared in the success of Mercedes and Red Bull. For one, Ferrari had a difficult race. This was despite what seemed like it could be a good weekend for them. Ferrari had come to Austria with a new upgrade package, and both drivers performed well in qualifying. With Leclerc qualifying in P2 and Hamilton qualifying in P3.

Leclerc had a good start, challenging Russell for the race lead, but soon fell back, and was not able to maintain a good pace afterwards. Hamilton, coming off his first win with Ferrari, seemed to show more promise. He had a few battles with Max Verstappen, and at one point seemed to be on pace to challenge Russell for the lead.

This did not last, as the 41-year-old driver fell behind, and faced issues with his car getting hot. Hamilton ended up finishing in fifth place, likely not getting the kind of momentum he had hoped for after his victory in Barcelona. Meanwhile Leclerc’s season continues to be challenging as he finishes in eighth.

Cadillac also had some upgrades coming to their cars this weekend, hoping to improve performance and fight for their first points in Formula 1. Once again those points floated away like a dollar on a string as they failed to even finish the race. Both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez faced early retirements due to overheating brakes. 

Carlos Sainz also saw an early retirement due to car issues, as did Lance Stroll. Luckily his teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso managed to get the Aston Martin to last for a whole race, which is about as much as the struggling team can hope for at this point.

That marks a total of four DNFs, which, all things considered is not nearly as many compared to other races so far this season. 

As for the standings, George Russell’s victory moves him ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the standings and cuts Antonelli’s championship lead to 40 points.. Meanwhile, Mercedes leads the constructors with a 98-point gap between them and second place Ferrari heading into next week’s race at Silverstone.