F1 Austrian GP live commentary and updates - race day

Russell and Verstappen are in traffic navigation mode at the moment, as they clear the likes of Albon, Colapinto - with the two Haas cars up ahead.

Piastri is trying to close Leclerc down, as he wants to maximise McLaren's result this afternoon.

Hamilton is told he can return to "mode race".

"Mode TS," Hamilton is told to manage his temperatures, which he's not too happy about as he's not making the inroads he would want into Piastri's current advantage.

Verstappen is now within 4s of Russell, so it's game on here. 

So it's Russell, Verstappen, Antonelli, Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton, Hadjar, Norris, Lindblad, and Lawson. Bortoleto is on the fringes of the points.

Russell has 4.6s over Verstappen, as Leclerc can't hold off Antonelli into Turn 4 this time! Third belongs to the Italian driver now! 

Hamilton is side-by-side with Hadjar, and holds the line through Turn 6 to move up to sixth. Piastri should be next up, as Hadjar lost touch with the McLaren.

Antonelli decides not to put a move on Leclerc at Turn 3, pulls out on the run to Turn 4, but Leclerc holds the line. 

Hamilton is very close to Hadjar now...

Antonelli's pushing Leclerc for third now, and within a second. Isn't it good when we've got three or four teams all racing each other?

Hamilton is indeed within overtake range of Hadjar now. 

Sainz has come to a stop on the start-finish straight, and Antonelli has taken the opportunity to pit - although he doesn't get any VSC benefit here! He rejoins in fifth, just as the VSC emerged. 

Bad timing for Mercedes there. 

So, Verstappen is 3.5s behind Russell now, while Antonelli is still out in the lead.

Hadjar, who pitted earlier to swap his mediums for another set of mediums, is closing down Piastri.

Verstappen gets the run on Hamilton and gets the dive into Turn 3 - but Hamilton recaptures track position at Turn 4.

Perhaps smarting from their earlier encounter, Verstappen held the inside and chopped across at Turn 6 to ensure Hamilton had no chance to get back past. That might be it for their little skirmish over a net second.

Norris will duly pit as he's struggling on those mediums, and will drop out in eighth behind Hadjar. 

No further investigation for the Hamilton/Verstappen moment - the FIA has decreed that this was, indeed, racing. 

Antonelli stays out and assumes the lead, while Russell comes out a couple of seconds to the good over Hamilton. 

Norris is asked to extend, but the McLaren driver complains that he's got no pace. 

Verstappen is now within overtake distance of Hamilton once more.

Hamilton indeed gets through, with two seconds separating he and Verstappen as they're now both on the hards.

Russell will now pit, taking on the hards, as does Piastri. 

Russell's lead to Verstappen has dropped a little bit to five seconds, while Hamilton has scythed away at Lawson's advantage and gets past. 

Verstappen is now coming in to pit. Can he emerge ahead of Hamilton?

Hamilton clears Lindblad now, with Lawson a further three seconds up the road. 

"It's all surface overheating - the one-stop may be possible," Russell reports. Well, that opens the strategy door a bit - one-stops versus three-stops?

Hulkenberg puts a move on Ocon for 12th. 

Antonelli is starting to catch Verstappen now, as the Dutchman has a lock up.

Hamilton has been noted for the Turn 6 guidance of Verstappen towards the gravel, which the Red Bull driver thought was penalty-worthy. 

Hamilton indeed clears Bortoleto, and will give chase to the Racing Bulls pair - which might not make his life easy.

Russell leads by 5.4s over Verstappen, with Antonelli, Piastri, and Norris our current top five now that the Ferraris have stopped. 

Hamilton comes out in 11th, and is asked to push. He'll need to clear Bortoleto pretty quickly.

Verstappen will stay out, as Leclerc will come in to perform his first stop. Three-stoppers ahoy!

"That's a clear penalty," Verstappen reckons, and can't attack this lap as he used up all of his electrical power.

And Hamilton is pitting, and moves onto the hard tyre to cover off a potential early stop from Verstappen.

Verstappen makes the dive on Hamilton at Turn 3, and comes up for air with second. But Hamilton moves past again at Turn 4, they're side by side, and Verstappen is just shown the edge of the track - Hamilton keeps hold of second.

Inch-perfect racing from both drivers. 

Verstappen is sniffing around Hamilton and putting the Ferrari under a lot of pressure. It's understood that Red Bull is on a three-stop, and Russell is told that Verstappen could "trigger this very early" if he can't pass Hamilton. 

Bortoleto has cleared Ocon for 11th, using those soft tyres to make up a place. Whether he can inch closer to the Racing Bulls will depend on how much life he has left. Lawson's still going, so presumably the fire wasn't terminal.

Hamilton has lost over a second to Russell in the past couple of laps, which has let Verstappen in here. 

Antonelli will begin to catch this pair, having dropped Leclerc. 

Antonelli has a run on Leclerc here, but the Monegasque is defending hard. The Mercedes had a look at the exit of Turn 4, didn't make it work, but Leclerc had nothing to defend with at Turn 9 and Antonelli cruised by.

Meanwhile, Verstappen's right on Hamilton's tail. 

Antonelli being stuck behind Leclerc is helping the McLarens stay in touch here, but Norris might have to look out in his mirrors for Hadjar arriving. 

Now Perez is reporting smoke in the cockpit - that's it for Cadillac.

Russell is 1.3s clear of Hamilton, who in turn is 1.8s clear of Verstappen.

Leclerc is trying to shake Antonelli, but the Italian isn't going anywhere. 

Lawson reports a fire on his car too, but he's still racing with Hadjar as he gets a switch back at Turn 3 on his former team-mate. Hadjar gets the place again into Turn 5.

Russell has broken the second's gap, but Hamilton's still with him. Verstappen has dropped Leclerc and Antonelli. 

Russell and Hamilton have been able to dash off as Verstappen battled Leclerc and Antonelli. Piastri now leads Norris, as the McLarens try to close in on Antonelli here. 

Lawson started well, to get ahead of Hadjar, as Ocon has moved up four places to get into 11th.

Bottas reports that his brakes are on fire...oh no, not again.

Antonelli gets past Leclerc at Turn 1 but, as he's done in the previous lap, he goes off. He gives up the place at Turn 3, but Verstappen buys into this and gets ahead of Antonelli!

Leclerc then loses ground at Turn 4, which allows Verstappen to nose ahead into the next corners! 

Russell has parked up, but we'll be waiting a little while for the rest as Stroll eventually gets to the final two turns...

Are we ready? Then let's begin.

So, what's the over-under on a pile-up at Turn 3? Antonelli was somewhat responsible for one last year, when he outbraked himself and speared into Verstappen - and this year there's 22 cars trying to file through the tight, uphill right-hander.

Starting tyres

Softs: Bortoleto, Sainz

Mediums: everyone else!

There we go, that was easy! 

Just 10 minutes to go until the race in Austria gets under way - 71 laps around quite a short course, so expect the heat and traffic to play a significant part of the race.

Pirelli's forecasts suggest that a two-stop will be the most popular option, but a three-stop could be quicker in clean air. 

What can Ferrari do?

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton line up second and third on the grid - something of a surprise, as the two Ferraris didn't look in contention until the final run of Q3. 

The team's prowess at starts has waned slightly in recent rounds as everyone else has got to grips with the powertrain mapping to get off the line, but both red cars can theoretically work together to chisel polesitter Russell away from the lead.

Hamilton on Ferrari's race chances: "I think this weekend we’ve not been confident that we could fight for a win. These guys have been six tenths quicker than us most of the weekend. We closed the gap overnight three tenths, but we still are three tenths down today, or two-and-a-bit tenths down today.

"It’s going to be very tough to challenge them tomorrow, but with a long run down to Turn 3, hopefully together we can. It’s great having Charles here as well, because we can hopefully work together in a strategy and try to apply pressure to them."

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot