George Russell won the sprint race ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix to put down a defiant marker in his world championship fight against Kimi Antonelli.Englishman Russell narrowed the deficit to his Mercedes team-mate to 56 points by beating him into fourth place.Yet Antonelli extended his lead to his nearest rival Lewis Hamilton, who finished seventh for Ferrari, to 53 points.Charles Leclerc came second in the other red car, having passed McLaren’s Lando Norris at the start of the 17th of 24 laps.Norris did his old karting pal Russell a huge favour by refusing to yield as Antonelli pressed him relentlessly lap after lap, just holding off the challenge to finish third. Englishman Russell narrowed the deficit to his Mercedes team-mate to 56 points by beating him into fourth placeOscar Piastri was fifth for McLaren.Max Verstappen finished where he started – sixth – holding off Hamilton on a somewhat overcast day, the rain that fell earlier having cleared from the track by the time the action started.Russell’s margin of victory at the end stood at 1.3sec, a win that gave him a huge fillip after struggling this season against Antonelli, the wonderkid of 19 who now needs to survive the expectation on his shoulders to claim the title many expect him to achieve.The rain fell just as the chequered flag was waved, a relief to Russell, who punched the air after his victory ahead of qualifying later today.Russell said: ‘A great start to the weekend. If there was one more lap it would potentially have been a very different end to the race, so I was glad the rain came when it did.‘The Ferraris look really fast, and it’s going to be a tight one this afternoon.‘I knew if there were going to be any overtakes, they were going to be towards the end of the race. I wanted to manage my tyres through the high-speed corners and have a bit more in the tank come the end of the race.‘I knew if Charles got past Lando, he would be fast. As soon as I saw Charles behind me, I dropped the hammer and the two of us pulled away.’