George Russell reveals disagreement with Toto Wolff 'cold-blooded' comment

George Russell has revealed that he disagrees with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff calling his Austrian Grand Prix performance "cold-blooded", believing it was instead more "calm and controlled".

Russell converted pole position into victory at the Red Bull Ring, marking just his second win of the season, with the first coming in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in March.

It was a controlled display by the Briton for much of the race, although he did come under pressure from Max Verstappen midway through.

The Dutchman had exceptional pace during his second stint, which saw him close to within 1.3 seconds of Russell, who opted to pit for a second time before the Red Bull driver.

This proved critical in the race, as by the time Verstappen eventually pitted again, Russell held an 11-second advantage.

As a result, the Mercedes driver was able to control the remainder of the race and reduce Kimi Antonelli's title lead to 40 points.

Asked if the race felt like a cold-blooded display, as put by Wolff, Russell replied: "It didn’t quite feel like that, to be honest. It felt a really calm and controlled race. 

"I think if we took Max out of the picture, you’d say it was a really strong performance from Mercedes, 20 seconds ahead of McLaren, more ahead of Ferrari. 

"But with the upgrades on the Red Bull, Max was in the fight for pole yesterday, really great race pace from him today. He pressured me in the middle stint and forced me to stop with 28 laps remaining, which was quite uncomfortable. 

"But I had a really strong first 20 laps of that stint, which allowed me just to bring it home in the final eight."