Lando Norris resisted the race-long challenge of team-mate Oscar Piastri to win the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, closing the gap in the Drivers’ Championship.
Norris performed calmly and confidently all race, holding off a fraught and frisky series of attempts by Piastri early on to assert his authority and claim a third victory of the year.
It was a good day for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc taking his fourth podium finish in a 3-4 for the Scuderia, with Lewis Hamilton just behind.
Max Verstappen slipped further back in the title race after being taken out by Andrea Kimi Antonelli on Lap 1, completing a memorable day for the Woking-based squad.
There was drama before the race even began, with Carlos Sainz unable to get going as everyone pulled away for the formation lap.
The Williams got going as the cars were coming round, and competed a whole lap, but race control had already called another 10-minute procedure.
With the pit crews returning to the grid, Sainz dived into the pits, and upon sitting at the exit, both his rear brakes caught fire.
The Spaniard was out of the race, and must surely have wondered what he must do to catch a break.
When the race finally got going, Norris got away well but Leclerc got a better start. However, as he tried to take the McLaren, he lost momentum and the second papaya car of Piastri came around the outside at Turn 1 to take second.
Behind, Russell took Hamilton for fourth, as Verstappen took Lawson for sixth, but as the Red Bull looked to gain more places, it was all over at Turn 3.
As he went up the hill and sniffed around the outside of Hamilton, Antonelli tried to soar up the inside of a number of cars, and in a mixture of rookie misjudgment and locking of the brakes, failed to slow down sufficiently, and punted the Red Bull out the race. Both men were out, as were the yellow flags.
Racing resumed on Lap 4, with Norris leading his team-mate and both Ferraris, Hamilton having re-taken Russell just before the yellow flags. The Mercedes was not done yet, and tried to take Hamilton into Turn 4, but his old partner shut the door.
With the McLarens opening up a gap to the others, Piastri was inching closer to Norris, and had a look at Turn 4, but Norris shut the door firmly.
Further back, Albon took sixth off Gasly, as Piastri, being told over radio that he was free to race, continued to look at Norris, who so far had everything covered off nicely.
On Lap 11, Norris went deep into Turn 1, giving Piastri a perfect slingshot up the hill. He made it into the braking zone of Turn 3, but went deep himself, giving Norris a chance to retake the position.
Down the hill into Turn 4, Norris dived back down and covered off Piastri, but the Australian did not give it up, trying to get back through into Turn 6, but Norris resisted admirably.
Lap 15, and Piastri waited to make another move on Norris, but again was thwarted, and it would remain to be seen which of the two McLarens’ tyres will degrade more first.
Williams’ weekend got even worse, with Albon retiring due to a technical proble on Lap 16.
This, combined with Gasly’s early change to Hard tyres, promoted Bortoleto to sixth place, the Brazilian having capitalised on Lawson’s poor start.
Piastri and Norris go toe-to-toe
The Sauber was then up to fifth when Russell pitted for Mediums in the bid to undercut the Ferraris.
Lap 20, and Piastri made the most daring attempt yet, locking-up after braking late at Turn 4, but Norris avoided contact, and with Piastri’s tyres now surely flat-spotted, Norris made his first stop, switching to Hards.
Piastri was was advised to stay out despite the falt spot, but did stop for Hards five laps later. The front left proved tricky to take off, holding him up, and he would rejoin in fourth, one place behind Norris, five seconds away.
Norris would retake the lead on the road on Lap 27, as Hamilton came in for Hards, following Leclerc who did so two laps prior.
Bortoleto was swiftly back up into the points, and easily dispatched Gasly for 10th on Lap 28, with team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in front, the German veteran yet to change tyres.
Hamilton quickly got his tyres up to temperature, and duly took Fernando Alonso for fifth and then Lawson for fourth.
On Lap 31, Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto were engaged in a battle for 13th place, which came to a head at Turn 4. The Red Bull looked down the inside and hung in, but as space started to decrease, he touched the right rear of the Alpine, sending it into a 360, and himself into the pits for a quick check and fresh tyres.
Tsunoda earned himself a 10-second penalty and two penalty points for the incident, compounding his day further.
Russell’s challenge to the Ferraris seemed to fade by half distance, now 14 seconds behind Hamilton, and at risk of being in a race with Bortoleto, who continued to show good pace.
At the front, Norris continued to hold a five-second advantage on Piastri, as the Ferrari duo were ordered to lift and coast to protect both cars’ skid blocks.
Into Lap 42, and Piastri was starting to eat into Norris’ lead, taking two seconds out of it in just a matter of laps due to Norris getting caught in traffic.
With now 21 laps to go, Norris was able to open his lead back up to 4.3s as Hamilton went wide at Turn 3, but managed to resume without any problems.
Norris retains the lead in the second stops
Hamilton, against his own wishes, pitted for Mediums on Lap 51, followed by Norris two laps later, rejoining in second, as Piastri tried to use the clearer air in front of him to maximise his chances of taking the lead after his stop.
That came just one lap later with a 16-second advantage over Norris, but despite a better stop this time, Norris retook the lead by 3.4s.
Piastri was immediately caught up in the continuation of Tsunoda and Colapinto’s battle, the Argentinian going deep into Turn 3 to take the Japanese.
But with Tsunoda getting the position back, Colapinto positioned himself to relaunch an attack, and in doing so, planted himself straight into Piastri’s path, forcing the McLaren onto the grass.
Colapinto made the move stick a lap later, heaping more misery on Red Bull, but was quickly given a 10-second time penalty for forcing Piastri off.
Bortoleto continued to show magnificence further back, taking Hadjar for eighth, with Hulkenberg still in 10th place.
Hadjar lost another place, dropping out of the points as he was overtaken by Bearman for 10th, as team-mate Lawson held on to sixth but was under extreme threat from Alonso’s Aston Martin.
With less than 10 laps to go, Piastri found himself less than two seconds behind Norris, which maintained after both men cleared the traffic in their way.
The same gap remained with now just five laps to go, but Norris would continue to stay in good trim as the win inched ever closer.
Into the final lap, and Norris reached the Bortoleto-Alonso battle, but calmly dispatched both of them, who continued to hustle each other before Piastri could catch them.
Norris coasted across the line to take a much-needed victory, leading a fourth McLaren 1-2 of the year from Piastri.
Leclerc, a further 17 seconds back, took another top-three finish with Hamilton fourth. Russell and Lawson were separated by just five seconds at the end in fifth and sixth, with Alonso holding off Bortoleto, who took his first points of the season, and a double top-10 result for the ever-improving Saubers, with Hulkenberg ninth, with Ocon claiming the final points in 10th.
For Norris, it was an important victory, narrowing the gap to Piastri at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to just 15 points, and further increasing McLaren’s dominant advantage in the Constructors’ standings.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Austrian Grand Prix – Race Results
