2024 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Results & aftermath

Russell gifted win after Verstappen & Norris tangle; Piastri’s lone surviving McLaren claims P2, Sainz P3; Verstappen finishes in P5 but Norris DNFs

A funny thing happened on the way to another Max Verstappen romp at his team’s own Red Bull Ring. A day after dominating the Saturday Sprint and earning pole for the Austrian Grand Prix, the smart money was on Verstappen’s dominating ways here in Spielberg, where he has won four of the last six contests, continuing come race day. And for two thirds of this 71-lap contest, that appeared to be the case. But, with the race evolving into a graduate level true tire strategy test for the engineers on this short, high-deg circuit, things began shifting away from the race leading Red Bull man when both he and the P2 McLaren of Lando Norris were called in on Lap 51 for their second and ostensibly final pit stop for fresh rubber. Both doffed their used Hard Pirelli tires and changed back to the Mediums, the compound they had both started the race on. But Verstappen’s pit crew had an uncharacteristically slow 6.5 -second stop after battling with a sticky left rear wheel, while Norris’s time stationary was the more typically crisp 2.9-seconds. Upon exiting the pits line to stern, Verstappen now saw his previous seven-second lead evaporate to just a touch more than a second over the pursuing McLaren. And pursue Norris did, quickly getting into DRS range and harassing the Dutch race leader over a multi-lap period.  Under that fierce pressure, Verstappen began to be ever more aggressive in defense, leading to multiple complaints from Norris back to his race engineer that the Red Bull was consistently moving in reaction to his lunges. Norris himself had already received the Black & White flag for track limits and eventually received a 5-second penalty after running wide trying an overtake on Verstappen on Lap 59. But that didn’t tame Norris’s aggression and confidence at all. With the two front runners dicing for the race win in ever more intense and physical manner as the laps wound down, something had to give. And on Lap 64, the seemingly inevitable contretemps finally happened.

Norris dove to the inside seeming into the always treacherous off-camber Turn 3 looking to make the race winning overtake. But Verstappen appeared to squeeze the McLaren at the apex and Norris’s from wing made contact with Verstappen’s rear left, damaging the rim and cutting down the Red Bull’s tire almost immediately. Despite his stricken state, Verstappen would not yield and let Norris through into the lead and the two touched again, with Norris picking up a puncture of his own to the rear right. Both the Red Bull and McLaren had to limp back to the pits, but the Red Bull was able to do a standard tire change to Softs, while Norris’s McLaren had been so badly damaged at both the front and by the tire carcass flailing the rear bodywork that the crestfallen Englishman was forced to retire the car. While Verstappen received a 10-second time penalty after the stewards determined he was at fault for that fateful contact between the top two contenders, the Dutch points leader was able to salvage P5 from of the ordeal, as well as set the fastest lap of the Grand Prix for an extra point on those fresh Softs. Norris, meanwhile, scored no points with his DNF, his dreams of victory going from within his grasp to ashes in his mouth in mere moments. Previously on very friendly terms, the way things went down in Austria this Sunday and with Norris’s pointed post-race comments putting all of the blame on the Red Bull ace, there’s likely to be a fairly serious cooling off in Verstappen and Norris’s bromance.

The late race chaos all redounded to the benefit of Mercedes’ George Russell, who went from plodding along in a safe and solitary third place to blowing by the two injured cars ahead and taking the lead on that fateful Lap 64. To quote the Englishman, he was more than happy to “pick up the pieces” and to be fair to him, Russell had run cleanly and quickly enough to be in a position to do so. The Mercedes factory team were jubilant at their good fortune and neither Russell nor the Silver Arrows brass seemed inclined to give the great gift win back. Picking up his teammate, the second and sole surviving McLaren of Oliver Piastri was not able to close enough on Russell for a final lunge but did come home an outstanding P2, though the young Aussie may be ruing having his best lap in qualifying deleted for track limits and being forced to start P7. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz also enjoyed his gift trip to the podium after inheriting P3. While the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton finished a distant P4 to add to the team’s unexpectedly large points haul, the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc could never quite recover from an opening lap kerfuffle with Piastri and Sergio Perez that necessitated a costly and interminable time in the pits for a front wing change so early in the race. The Monegasque finished an unlucky P11 outside the points despite about a zillion pit stops.

While Perez had yet another underwhelming performance in the second Red Bull en route to a desultory P7 finish, it was something of a banner day for the Haas F1 team. Putting themselves in position to fully benefit from the misfortunes of others by being genuinely quick and having solid pit stops, Nico Hulkenberg rode the chaotic late race waves to an impressive P6 finish, while teammate Kevin Magnussen came home in P8. It was by far the best scoring day for Haas in 2024 and they’ll be hoping they can build on this improved performance at Silverstone next weekend. Rounding out the top ten, Daniel Ricciardo did yeoman’s work for RB Honda to finish P9, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly ascended to P10 upon Norris’s retirement.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 63 George Russell MERCEDES 71 1:24:22.798 25
2 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +1.906s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 71 +4.533s 15
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +23.142s 12
5 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 71 +37.253s 10
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 71 +54.088s 8
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 71 +54.672s 6
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 71 +60.355s 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo RB HONDA RBPT 71 +61.169s 2
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 71 +61.766s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, making it a grueling three Grand Prix in a row — the classic British GP from the legendary Silverstone airfield track. McLaren seem to have the pace to take it to Verstappen’s Red Bull but can they duke it out with the increasingly aggressive championship leader? And can once-mighty Mercedes take their improved performance and turn it into yet more good luck at their home circuit? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!