Max Verstappen after a dominant start to the race weekend in Austria, saw a Superman-like weakness in his Red Bull unravel what seemed like a certain win into chaos that left Lando Norris out of contention and made way for George Russell to take shocking win.

Veestappen secured both the pole and the win during the sprint format of the race weekend with Oscar Piastri giving Lando Norris a taste of the challenge the Briton has endured this season from his Australian teammate, pulling off a daring overtake to bag P2 behind the Dutchman's win.

On Sunday, Verstappen seemed well on his way to securing yet another Austrian Grand Prix success, when during his second pitstop things started to unravel for the Dutchman as problems with the left rear caused him to lose 6 seconds to pursuer Lando Norris.

Superman-like weakness unleashes chaos for Verstappen and Red Bull

As had been the case in the Canadian Grand Prix for instance, Red Bull's RB20's performance was subject to temperature. As the sun hid behind the cloudy conditions and temperatures started to fall, the Austrian team's car's pace began to drop off.

Max Verstappen's pit stop at the Austrian Grand Prix resulted in Lando Norris reeling him in and closing the gap on the Dutchman.

Norris encouraged by his McLaren's pace and Verstappen's Red Bull's lack thereof, set on a mission to hunt down the Dutchman bring the gap to virtually nothing as the race entered its final stages.

Russell picks up the pieces Verstappen and Norris's chaos left in its wake

Norris' charge for the lead was relentless, forcing Verstappen to issue an aggressive defense to safeguard his win. Eight laps before the end the Briton tried to go for a move around the outside which Verstappen covered off by pushing the Briton slightly wide. Norris, however, did not move his MCL38 and stayed on his trajectory resulting in contact between the two, with the pair havng to limp all the way back to the pits, where the McLaren driver would then retire.

From the incident three things came about, a penalty for Norris for leaving the track, a post-race penalty for Verstappen for the contact and a clear path for Russell to take home the win.

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Oscar Piastri finished in second place, while Carlos Sainz completed the podium. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, just ahead of Verstappen.

This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder