Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls (P6) 8/10
Lawson has endured a tough 2025 season thus far, with demotions and his racing ability being called into question. But all of the hard work behind the scenes has finally paid dividends with eight points around the Red Bull Ring, outqualifying the Red Bull of Verstappen and being the best placed of the “four” Red Bulls. Much like with Alonso, the one-stop strategy worked like a charm, but Lawson also showed solid race pace and defended staunchly against a chasing Alonso.
George Russell, Mercedes (P5) 7/10
The winner last year, Russell would have surely loved to replicate his result last year in Spielberg. But right from the very first practice session, it didn’t look likely. Mercedes simply couldn’t provide a race-winning car in the hot conditions, overheating tyres the consequence of the sweltering temperatures. Despite battling with the Ferrari of Hamilton early on, he swiftly fell further and further back and ran his own race, finishing in a lonely fifth. Of course not the result the Briton wanted, but it was probably the best he could hope for and he gets bonus points for not putting a foot wrong all weekend long.
