SPIELBERG, Austria — Lando Norris prevailed in a thrilling fight with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
Norris converted pole position into the lead at Turn 1 but soon came under intense pressure from championship leader Piastri, who launched several attacks and at one point muscled his way past, only for the positions to be swiftly reversed.
After a particularly close call under braking for Turn 4, which saw Piastri lock up and almost run into the back of Norris, the Australian went slightly longer on his starting set of tires in an attempt to build an advantage for the remainder of the race.
While Piastri lit up the timesheets in phases across the second and third stints, Norris had just enough pace in hand to hold onto the lead and take the checkered flag 2.695 seconds ahead of his teammate.
“We had a great battle, that’s for sure,” Norris said. “It was a lot of fun, for me a lot of stress but a lot of fun! A nice battle, so well done to Oscar.
“Hopefully it was a nice one for everyone to watch, but inside the car it was obviously tough, especially when he was in DRS. The DRS is so big around here, it’s hard to get him out of the gap, but once I did I could manage things pretty well. But he was still quick, so it was good fun.”
It was Norris’ third victory of the season, allowing him to trim Piastri’s point lead to 15 markers.
The start of the race was marred by an opening lap accident, which saw Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli ram into the back of world champion Max Verstappen’s Red Bull under breaking with both drivers crashing out of the race.
– marking his third win of the season and first victory since last month’s Monaco Grand Prix. The stewards later gave Antonelli a three-place grid penalty for his next race.
Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished third and fourth, respectively, while George Russell took fifth for Mercedes.
