Verstappen mocks Russell over team radio during the Austrian GP

Verstappen crashed on Saturday during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix when the Dutchman suddenly lost control of his RB22 in Turn 9. After qualifying, Verstappen said that he had no idea how he suddenly lost control of his Red Bull. It later turned out that the rear wing of the Dutchman didn’t close in time and the lack of downforce meant he was unable to stop it sliding into the barriers.

Russell was right behind Verstappen on track and initially only saw a single yellow flag after the crash. This allowed the Mercedes driver to briefly lift off and still secure pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix. Andrea Kimi Antonelli also passed the Dutchman under single yellows, but the Italian thought it was already double yellow and aborted his flying lap.

Only afterwards did double yellow flags appear on track, which means a lap time is automatically invalid. Verstappen said after qualifying that he was very surprised there wasn’t immediately a double yellow. Russell’s pole lap was briefly investigated by the FIA after the session, but it was quickly decided that he could keep his time and retain his pole position.

However, during the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen playfully referred back to Russell’s pole position. In the race, there were two Virtual Safety Cars, and therefore yellow flags as well.

"Yellow in Turn 10. Double yellow across the start/finish line. DYellow here, and double yellows," said Gianpiero Lambiase, the race engineer of the four-time world champion, to which Verstappen quipped: "That means flat out, right? Past the car? I’m joking!"

Lambiase didn’t respond to his driver’s joke and simply said: "Virtual Safety Car".

Verstappen trimmed Kimi Antonelli’s lead by three points in Austria but still sits 98 points adrift with roughly a third of the calendar remaining. He cited strong outright pace in the RB22 yet pointed to lingering weaknesses - from race starts to internal procedures — that must be fixed before a genuine title push can take shape.

The Dutchman was encouraged by P2 at the Red Bull Ring, noting the car’s pace faded mid-race as issues emerged. Read more.

When asked about his title hopes, he joked: "Well, I think there are more races left than last year. But it's a very big gap. I think for us, we have very good pace, but I think to fight for a title race we still have too many issues, if that's from a start to just procedural issues in the background that even I think you guys don't know about, but I know about."