Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overcame a challenge from the McLaren drivers to emerge victorious during a thrilling Sprint encounter at Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was made to dice wheel-to-wheel with Lando Norris to earn the win, but the Dutchman came out on top, as Oscar Piastri pipped his team-mate to second.
The entire grid – including Alex Albon’s Williams, which commenced proceedings from the pitlane – went with the middle-range Medium compound for the 24-lap race.
But while Verstappen brought the field around and the cars lined up on the starting grid, the lights didn’t come on and there was an additional formation lap indicated.
Verstappen executed another exceptional launch from the line to be unopposed as the cars roared up towards Turn 1 as Piastri came alongside his team-mate Norris.
Piastri utilised the slipstream on the extensive climb up to Turn 3 to have another go at Norris, but the Briton parked it on the inside to protect second on the first lap.
George Russell had maintained fourth over Carlos Sainz until the Ferrari driver capitalised on the slingshot down to Turn 4 to complete an overtake round the outside.
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc had cleared the Alpine drivers and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to elevate his Ferrari up into seventh place behind Sainz and the Mercedes duo.
Norris was matching Verstappen’s lap times and with DRS open the McLaren driver made Verstappen move to cover the inside line into Turns 3 and 4 on the third lap.
Verstappen again resisted his rival’s advances on the next lap, but Norris completed a late dive down the inside into the uphill right-hander at Turn 3 to claim the lead.
However, Verstappen cut underneath Norris and used his own chance to activate DRS to make a bold lunge down the McLaren racer’s inside into the following corner.
Piastri was tucked behind the leaders and he accepted the open invitation that arrived when Norris’ line was compromised to swoop around his team-mate’s outside.
Sainz was struggling to retain pace with Verstappen and the two McLarens and he was powerless to prevent Russell blasting past using DRS to seize fourth on Lap 8.
Verstappen appeared to have broken the McLaren challenge as he opened up a two-second advantage over Piastri, while the Alpine duo squabbled over 11th position.
Meanwhile, Norris was now all over his team-mate’s tail as the truncated race reached its closing laps, but the Australian was doing enough to preserve second place.
Sainz was striving to ensure that he split the Mercedes drivers in the pecking order, but he had lost DRS from Russell and Lewis Hamilton was now lining up fifth spot.
Back at the sharp end, Verstappen cruised home with a four-second margin to add another Sprint win to his glittering record with another triumph at the Red Bull Ring.
Piastri managed to edge out his McLaren partner Norris to second position as the Woking-based squad’s promising run continued with a double top-three race result.
Russell was a distant fourth in the lead Mercedes car as he headed home Sainz’s Ferrari and team-mate Hamilton, with Leclerc and Perez completing the points spots.
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