Norris prevails over Piastri in chaotic Austrian GP; Ferrari gain in Constrcutors’ with Leclerc P3, Hamilton P4; Red Bull score zero at home race after Verstappen taken out by Antonelli on Lap 1, sloppy Tsunoda finishes last

A race after crashing out in a clash with his teammate in Canada, McLaren’s Lando Norris kept his cool under the hot Spielberg sun, fending off his chief rival and fellow Papaya driver Oscar Piastri to take victory at Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. In a chaotic race that saw four retirements, including the usually impervious Red Bull of Max Verstappen, Norris reestablished his championship potential by controlling the race from the front after starting from the pole, deftly weaving his way through back-markers at the very short and intense Red Bull Ring and executing a very clean final stint under pressure to earn a valuable win. Despite a late race charge by Piastri after the final round of pit stops in this 70-lap contest, Norris withstood the challenge, as his young Aussie rival and current points leader could never quite close up enough to get the DRS and find a way by. Norris’s 25-points on the day versus Piastri’s second place 18 tightened up his deficit to a mere 15-points and, most importantly, restored the young Briton’s confidence after his error in judgement in Canada. It will be game on at Silverstone next weekend, where Norris will enjoy a slight home race advantage from the fans, while Piastri will be looking to reassert his dominance over his teammate and reignite his championship campaign.

Drama at the start as Antonelli collides with Verstappen 💥

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As if to drive home the point of McLaren’s absolute dominance this Grand Prix weekend, Not only did Norris and Piastri finish 1-2 but the third place Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was nearly 20-seconds in arrears when he took the checkered flag.  Still, with stablemate Lewis Hamilton slotting in at P4, it was a good day for the Scuderia in the points, especially on a day where their nearest rivals for second place in the Constructors’ had downright dismal outings. Ferrari couldn’t have drawn it up any better when Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli made an overly optimistic dove bomb move on Lap 1 steaming into Turn 3. The Silver Arrow’s rear tires locked up under breaking and Antonelli slammed into the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull, ending both their races before they could even compete a single circuit. To show just how rare that DNF was, it ended Verstappen’s astonishing 31-race scoring streak, a catastrophe for the team, as Yuki Tsunoda ran a ragged race and came home P16 when all was said and done, plumb last among the surviving cars. Still, it must be noted that Verstappen put himself into jeopardy by only qualifying P7 and Tsunoda is only the latest in a long line of second Red Bull drivers who are unable to find any kind of pace in the car. So, Red Bull’s situation might be even more grave than their zero-points result in Sunday in Austria before most of their corporate brass. For Antonelli, it was a brutal comedown after scoring his first podium in Canada two weeks ago and a reminder that they don’t call them “rookies” for nothing. George Russell salvaged at least a little something on the day, finishing where he started in P5, but Mercedes still saw Ferrari overtake them for P2 in the Constructors’ one race after it seemed they were ascendent after a 1-3 in Montreal. They’ll be hoping to get back on terms when they fire the engines up again in Silverstone.

Places 5 through 10 were nothing but happy surprises and good vibes, with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson continuing his rebound from his short-lived tenure with Red Bull at the start of the season by scoring his best ever F1 finish in P6. Wily old vet Fernando Alonso kept his Aston Martin out of trouble and the pursuing whippersnapper Gabriel Bortoleto behind him en route to seventh place. It was still an outstanding day for Kick Sauber, with not only rookie Bortoleto driving superbly to score his first F1 points in P8 but also veteran teammate Nico Hulkenberg adding to the team total in P9. Haas’s Esteban Ocon made it two races in a row in the points with a solid P10, no doubt helped by the slew of retirements, including both midfield-running Williams.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

Complete race results available via Fomula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the British GP from the legendary Silverstone Circuit, the grandaddy of them all in F1. We’ll see if  McLaren can keep pulling away from the field at a very different kind of circuit than the Red Bull Ring and, if so, whether the Piastri-Norris battle may once again lead to an internecine clash that opens the door for the other contenders. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!