Norris stays cools under pressure and leads McLaren 1-2 at Austria
Lando Norris finished a strong race weekend in the best possible way by taking victory at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Oscar Piastri was challenging but failed to make it past. Charles Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari in third.
Eventually the race start was a clean affair through Turn 1 but it was at Turn 3 where trouble happened. After the McLaren's had passed through and Norris maintained the lead by defending the inside line. The following cars seemed to be fine too but Antonelli then lost control of his car after locking the rear wheels under braking. He managed to steer out of the racing line to avoid slamming into Lawson but instead ended up bumping into Verstappen's right rear wheel. Both were immediately eliminated as a result, leading to a safety car that lasted for 4 laps.
The restart was clean and in the following laps both McLarens gradually distanced themselves from the Ferraris as they easily remained the best of the rest.
Piastri however wasn't eager to just sit there in second and enjoyed a powerful DRS effect to threaten Norris repeatedly until a late lunge in Turn 3 of lap 11 got him into first place, only to be repassed in the subsequent drag race to Turn 4.
Meanwhile Gasly and Colapinto were the first stoppers thanks to their choice for soft tyres in the first stint. Both switched to hard tyres and dropped to the back of the pack.
After a couple of laps to get back into an attacking position, Piastri was again all over Norris while the duo no longer increased their advantage to Leclerc. As Piastri maintained the pressure it just looked like the Australian was a bit more consistent as Norris was repeatedly wide through Turn 6 as well as picking up some gravel on the exit of the final corner.
On lap 20 Piastri nearly overcooked it in Turn 4, massively locking up the front right to avoid crashing into his teammate. It all went well, but surely wasn't a comfortable moment for Piastri or the team. Norris was immediately called in after that moment while Piastri was asked to show his pace. Piastri quickly reported his flat spot, but said a lap later it wasn't comfortable, but manageable. His race engineer acknowledged it via the data.
Behind Piastri, the two Ferraris and then Norris, Lawson came under pressure of Alonso. Stroll followed in 7th, then Hadjar, Russell and Gasly.
4 laps after Norris did, Piastri pits and changes medium to hard tyres. As he rejoined the gap to Norris was slightly more than 5 seconds. Leclerc pitted the next lap and returned to the track 6th, closely behind Alonso who continued to challenge Lawson. As Hamilton rejoined the race behind this trio after his stop, Leclerc made his way past Alonso to move up into 4th position. Lawson was quickly cleared as well with Hamilton soon doing the same.
On lap 32 Tsunoda got involved in another collision as he bumped Colapinto into a spin on the exit of Turn 4. The Alpine driver was lucky to make a 360 degree turn and continue the race while Tsunoda opted to pit for a new nose cone. Surely this incident didn't really fix the front win damage he incurred after coming together with Stroll at Turn 3 earlier in the Grand Prix. Tsunoda was swiftly awarded a 10 second time penalty by the stewards for it.
On lap 34 Alonso finally pitted, changing the medium to a fresh set of hard tyres. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, that put him right back where he was, looking at the rear of Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls car. The duo at the time was 11th and 12th.
Between the McLaren drivers the gap remained about 6 seconds until lap 35 but then increasingly, Piastri reduced the gap little by little down to another more or less stable 3.5s as of about lap 44.
On lap 50 Leclerc is the first driver to make a regular second stop, switching back from hard to medium tyres. Hamilton followed the next lap after being denied a request to extend his stint, saying his tyres are still just fine. Perhaps somewhat out of frustration, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race soon after that stop.
Norris stopped two laps later at a time when his advantage was 4 seconds over Piastri.
Norris was lucky to come out ahead of Colapinto and Tsunoda, cause when Piastri returned to the race, he was right behind the duo. Colapinto seemed aware and went wide in Turn 3, but Tsunoda happily cut back and took the position. Piastri followed in the confusion and was subsequently pushed into the grass by Colapinto, forcing the McLaren to back out once again, and costing Colapinto a 5s penalty. Piastri got through unharmed but it cost him a second, 0.8s of which he clawed back thanks to fastest lap the next round.
Piastri continued the blistering pace as he seemed more comfortable on the medium tyre. Another two fastest laps later, the gap was down to 2.9 seconds with 11 laps remaining. Another three laps later, the gap was reduced to 1.6 seconds. The next couple of laps saw some backmarkers intervene with the steady progress, resulting to a 1.9s gap with 3 laps remaining.
As the situation in the front was more or less fixed, Bortoleto came up behind Alonso. The Spaniard had to fight hard for three laps to keep the Sauber, with lots fresher tyres behind. Norris intervened at a moment when he lapped the two, resulting in Alonso opting to take the McLaren's slipstream, typically using all means he had to defend a racing position. It proved enough to maintain 7th as Bortoleto and Hulkenberg finished 8th and 9th, underlining Sauber's succesful car upgrade.
In the end, Norris didn't whimper under pressure this time and secured a great win.
