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Motorsport

F1 Austrian GP: Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri in dominant McLaren 1-2

Lando Norris Oscar Piastri McLaren Cla (Person) Mercedes F1 Ferrari George Russell Lewis Hamilton Austrian GP

Lando Norris held off a race-long challenge from McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to claim victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The McLarens were untouchable against the rest of the field, leaving the pair to scrap for the race win, with pole-sitter Norris surviving a couple of challenges to take the chequered flag and close the gap to Piastri at the top of the drivers’ championship to just 15 points.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen lost ground in the standings having been shunted out of the race on lap one by the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Piastri had been given permission to battle for the lead before being warned by the McLaren pit wall that one of his attempts had been too close to the bone. In the closing stages of the race, a late push wasn't quite enough to give him the chance to threaten Norris for the lead due to feuding backmarkers.

Charles Leclerc took the final step on the podium, coming home a distant third for Ferrari, which proved to be the best of the rest as Lewis Hamilton took fourth spot.

George Russell, race winner in Canada, was over half a minute behind Hamilton in fifth, with Liam Lawson an impressive sixth for Racing Bulls.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber (Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images)

A battle of master and apprentice saw the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso hold off a late challenge from Gabriel Bortoleto for seventh, the Sauber rookie picking up his first points of his F1 career.

The second Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg also scored points in ninth, with the Haas of Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10.

The initial start was aborted as Carlos Sainz failed to get his Williams off the line and was only able to be pushed away from the starting grid as Norris led the formation lap into the final corner.

Sainz eventually got going but, after coming into the pits, the rear of his Williams caught fire and his mechanics sprinted to the end of the pitlane to quell the flames – only for Sainz to be forced to retire before the restart.

Once the lights finally went out, Piastri passed Leclerc into turn one as Russell got past former team-mate Hamilton, it was behind them, though, where the action happened. Reigning world champion Verstappen was left waving to his adoring fans as Antonelli locked his rears and steamed straight into the Dutchman at Turn 3.

The incident brought out the safety car just moments after Hamilton had retaken fourth from the Mercedes of Russell, with the Ferrari able to hold Russell at bay at the restart.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls Team, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

Up front, McLaren gave Piastri the clearance to race Norris and he kept the pressure on the leader, who was racing in the clean air.

It was lap 11 where Piastri made his move into Turn 3 after a small error from Norris, who kept a cool head and cut back underneath the rear wing of his team-mate to retake the lead.

Alex Albon compounded a dreadful afternoon for Williams, retiring at the end of lap 16 to leave both cars in the garage.

Meanwhile, out front, Norris came in for his first stop at the end of lap 20, having survived a late lunge from Piastri that saw the Australian lock up slightly.

Norris switched to the hard compound but a stop of 3.1s gave Piastri a chance to push – even if he reported a flat spot from the earlier dive at Norris into Turn 4. McLaren asked Piastri if he wanted to follow his team-mate into the pits or stay out and have fresher rubber later in the grand prix.

Piastri came in on lap 24 and it was another slow stop from McLaren, 3.4s stationary in his box as he emerged over five seconds adrift of Norris – he was then given a message over the radio that his Turn 4 attempt was too close for comfort at McLaren.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Yuki Tsunoda, struggling for performance as the sole Red Bull remaining in the race, was battling further down the field and clipped Franco Colapinto at Turn 4, Tsunoda requiring a new front wing and dropping to the back of the field before the Japanese driver was handed a 10-second penalty for the collision.

As the race passed the midway point, Piastri started to close in on Norris as he took a whole second out of the leader on lap 40.

The positions remained the same heading into the second round of stops, Norris boxing a lap earlier while Piastri ended up behind the Tsunoda/Colapinto battle and was almost crashed into by the latter, who appeared oblivious to the fact he was being lapped and was handed a five-second penalty as a result.

Heading into the final 10 laps, Piastri cut the gap once again, getting to within two seconds of Norris who pleaded over the radio: “I need some pace, please help.” He was later told that he had front-wing damage that the team could not address.

Norris would hold on to take the win, managing to put the tussling Alonso and Bortoleto between himself and Piastri for the closing lap.

Photos from Austrian GP - Race

F1 Austrian GP - Race results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	L. Norris McLaren	4	70	-			2	25		McLaren	Mercedes
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81	70	+2.695 2.695	2.695		2	18		McLaren	Mercedes
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	70	+19.820 19.820	17.125		2	15		Ferrari	Ferrari
4	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	70	+29.020 29.020	9.200		2	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	G. Russell Mercedes	63	70	+1'02.396 1'02.396	33.376		2	10		Mercedes	Mercedes
6	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30	70	+1'07.754 1'07.754	5.358		1	8		RB	Honda
7	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	69	1 lap			1	6		Aston Martin	Mercedes
8	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5	69	1 lap			2	4		Sauber	Ferrari
9	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27	69	1 lap			2	2		Sauber	Ferrari
10	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31	69	1 lap			2	1		Haas	Ferrari
11	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87	69	1 lap			2			Haas	Ferrari
12	I. Hadjar Racing Bulls	6	69	1 lap			2			RB	Honda
13	P. Gasly Alpine	10	69	1 lap			2			Alpine	Renault
14	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	69	1 lap			2			Aston Martin	Mercedes
15	F. Colapinto Alpine	43	69	1 lap			2			Alpine	Renault
16	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22	68	2 laps			3			Red Bull	Red Bull
dnf	A. Albon Williams	23	15				2		Retirement	Williams	Mercedes
dnf	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	0						Collision	Red Bull	Red Bull
dnf	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12	0						Collision	Mercedes	Mercedes
dns	C. Sainz Williams	55	0						Brakes	Williams	Mercedes
View full results