Russell bounces back to beat Antonelli in final practice

George Russell bounced back to beat his Mercedes teammate and world championship leader Kimi Antonelli and clock the fastest time in Saturday’s final free practice session for Sunday’s “heat-hazard” Austrian Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old Briton clocked a best time in 1min 07.096sec to outpace the 19-year-old Italian by 0.038sec in torrid heat at the Red Bull Ring circuit, where the event has been declared hazardous, enabling drivers to wear special cooling vests under their fireproof racing suits.

The ‘silver arrows’ pair were more than a tenth of a second clear of nearest rival seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, fresh from his first Ferrari win in Spain two weeks ago, and two-tenths ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and defending champion Lando Norris.

Four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull was sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari, Isack Hadjar in the second Red Bull and the two Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and impressive rookie Arvid Lindblad.

“It’s always good to top the times,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, referring to Russell’s morale-boosting performance after he trailed Antonelli in both of Friday’s practice sessions.

Antonelli, winner of five straight races after Russell’s season-opening win, leads the title race by 41 points ahead of Hamilton.

The session began with Sergio Perez, hit by reliability issues on Friday, on his own at the head of the pitlane. The air temperature was 33 degrees and rising rapidly as the track, declared to have hit 60, shimmered in the heatwave that has engulfed Europe.

Ten minutes passed before another car emerged and any meaningful action began, Franco Colapinto joining the Mexican in his dazzling pink Alpine before Hadjar and Hulkenberg also emerged.

For spectators, sizzling in the Styrian Alps, it was meagre fare for 20 minutes until Russell, Hamilton and Norris joined in, the defending champion soon going top in 1:07.832 ahead of Hamilton by three-tenths and Russell by half a second.

Antonelli then arrived and swept to the top in 1:07.533 with Russell second by two-tenths ahead of Verstappen and then an improved Hamilton. Less than three-tenths separated the top six by mid-session.

The Italian trimmed his time while Russell complained of “bad straight-line braking on the front” before all went for softs in the final minutes, to simulate qualifying later Saturday.

Antonelli remained untouchable at the top in 1:07.134 as Hamilton closed within 0.077 to take second ahead of Russell with Piastri fourth and six minutes remaining before Russell, on a set of used softs, jumped top to recover the initiative from his precocious team-mate.