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F1 Review: Lando Norris Wins Austrian GP in Battle With Oscar Piastri; Max Verstappen KO’d On Lap 1

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Pole-sitter Lando Norris survived some tense moments, repelling the early and late challenges from McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, to win the MSC Cruises Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday (June 29th). The second big story of the race came when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was knocked out on lap 1, falling victim to the reckless braking of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who flew into Turn 3, and in turn into Verstappen, with abandon. Norris’ win likely tempered the memory of his ill-advised crash at the Canadian Grand Prix on June 15th.

“It was a tough race, pushing the whole way through,” Norris said. “Tricky, hot, tiring, but the perfect result for us as a team. We had a great battle, that’s for sure. It was a lot of fun – for me, a lot of stress, but a lot of fun.

“A one-two is exactly what we want, and we did it again, so I’m very happy.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished third and fourth, respectively, over 19 and 29 seconds, not so respectively, behind Norris. Mercedes’ George Russell, race winner in Canada, was a distant fifth.

Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson finished in the points for only the second time this season, taking sixth, the only driver in the Red Bull family to score. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso held off Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto for seventh, with Bortoleto earning the first points-scoring finish of his young career. 

Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg was ninth, with Haas Racing’s Esteban Ocon finishing 10th.

In the driver standings, Norris trimmed seven points off Piastri’s lead, with Piastri now leading 216 to 201. Verstappen holds third with 155 points, nine points ahead of Russell.

McLaren’s dominance is clearly reflected in the constructor standings, where McLaren leads Ferrari by a massive 207 points, 417 to 210. Mercedes, who were outscored by Ferrari 27 to 10 in Austria, is third with 209 points.

The Race

The initial start was aborted due to Carlos Sainz’s stalled Williams. Sainz eventually got his car rolling, only to see his rear brakes burst into flames after he entered the pits after running a lap.

Following a 10-minute delay, Norris uncharacteristically had a great launch at lights out and easily covered Leclerc, who couldn’t hold off Piastri. Chaos struck in Turn 3, where Kimi Antonelli rammed Max Verstappen under braking, taking both out of the race. The Safety Car emerged as the Red Bull Ring crowd lamented the exit of Verstappen.

Green flag racing resumed on lap 3 as Norris looked to display the dominance he showed all weekend in all free practice sessions and qualifying. Piastri kept pace with his teammate for a few laps, with DRS keeping him close. Early on, it looked like a two-car race for the win, with the McLarens already a good three seconds ahead of Leclerc in third.

Ten laps in, and Piastri remained in DRS range, with Norris wisely managing the gap and likely forcing Piastri to use his tires at a greater rate. The two exchanged the lead in an exciting battle in the second half of lap 11, with Norris eventually coming out on top. 

Farther back, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who started eighth, was in seventh and seeking his first points of the season. Liam Lawson, who outqualified Verstappen, was in eighth.

Piastri would not go away and continued to apply pressure on Norris, who knew he would need to be mistake-free to hold off his teammate. With the McLarens running this close to each other, the upcoming pit stops for the team would very well decide the outcome. 

Russell was the first of the top 10 to pit, coming in on lap 19 for another set of mediums. Russell emerged in 10th, attempting to undercut Hamilton but failing.

Norris pitted on lap 20 for hard tires, and a somewhat slow 3.1 second stop likely opened the door a bit for Piastri, who took the lead and the accompanying clean air, albeit with a tire flat spot incurred when Piastri locked up attempting an overtake on Norris.

Piastri received the call to box on lap 24, but a slower stop (3.4 seconds compared to Norris’ 3.1) did the Australian no favors. Piastri came out over six seconds behind Norris, so, advantage Norris after the first stop.

At the halfway point, the order was Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell, Bortoleto, Hülkenberg, Ocon, Gasly, and Bearman. That’s right, two Haas and two Saubers in the top 10! 

Piastri was gaining slightly on Norris, but not nearly enough to threaten his teammate yet. Norris was in great shape to take his third win of the year and trim seven points off of Piastri’s 22-point lead in the championship standings. But Piastri began to charge and had the gap down to three seconds by lap 42. 

Norris pitted on lap 52 and left with a set of mediums, emerging 17 seconds behind Piastri, who pitted a lap later, also for mediums. Piastri came out about three seconds behind Norris. Piastri was then pushed into the grass by Franco Colapinto as Piastri attempted to pass the slower car. Colapinto was rightfully given a five-second penalty.

Piastri closed the gap to Norris to under two seconds with eight laps left, with Norris showing concern over McLaren radio, asking “for some pace please.” Norris responded, despite being told he had some minor front-wing damage, and kept the gap to Piastri at a still-healthy two seconds. One mistake by Norris would open the door for Piastri, and consequently, one mistake by Piastri would ensure an easy Norris victory.

With two laps left, Norris ran into some traffic in the form of Bortoleto and Alonso, but navigated it decisively and cruised to a 2.6-second win over Piastri. 

The Good

This may have been the greatest race weekend of Liam Lawson’s F1 career, and while that might not be saying much, the Racing Bull driver impressed throughout the weekend.

On Saturday (June 28th), Lawson qualified sixth, one spot ahead of Verstappen. Sure, a late yellow flag hampered Verstappen’s final attempt to improve, but who’s going to remember that six months from now? Definitely not Red Bull, when they’re in the process of evaluating their drivers. 

Lawson also outqualified Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who didn’t even make it to Q2. Can we safely say now, with full confidence, that Red Bull erred in choosing to demote Lawson in favor of Tsunoda? Forget that tired narrative about Red Bull “not giving Tsunoda a good car.” It’s a Red Bull. Lawson, or even Isaak Hadjar, or heck, even Sonny Hayes or Brad Pitt, could at the very least, place a Red Bull into Q2. Tsunoda has done nothing in his Red Bull, and with Lawson’s Austrian result, has now been outscored by both Lawson and Hadjar. 

This was the Red Bull’s home race, and Tsunoda did nothing to endear himself to the Red Bull faithful. Especially on a day in which Verstappen crashed out early, when just a point or two could have given the fans something to cheer about. If the 56-foot steel sculpture of a bull, the landmark sculpture of the Red Bull Ring, represents Verstappen’s importance to Austrian fans, then Tsunoda’s distinction could be represented by a tiny, much smaller steel likeness of something that would drop from the other end.

While there was no drama as to which team would win the race, the battle between the two McLarens was, at times, close enough to leave some doubt as to which McLaren would come out on top. When Norris and Piastri are close to each other on the track, the racing is often scintillating, and the advantage seems to shift from one race to the next.

The Piastri-Norris battle for the championship could be epic. What would make it even more epic would be the two wiping each other out in a battle for the lead. And that may be the only way another driver (most likely Verstappen) will be able to interject himself into the championship fight. Here’s hoping Norris and Piastri remain within 10-20 points of each other in the standings, so the battle for the world championship will be decided at the final race in Abu Dhabi, rather than being decided by a rogue race director.

It was delightful to see 94-year-old Bernie Ecclestone, or his fossilized remains, finally set a foot on a grand prix podium for the first time. During his long tenure as an F1 executive, Ecclestone often left races early, frequently absenting himself from trophy presentations. Ecclestone looked quite spry for a man pushing 95, although no one would have been surprised had he been knocked off his feet by a spray of victory champagne.

The Bad

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli made the “rookiest” of rookie mistakes when he locked up his brakes into Turn 3 on the opening lap and plowed into Verstappen, knocking both out of the race. Over Red Bull radio, Verstappen mentioned “idiots,” a word he adjective-ized with one of his all-too-familiar “F” words. The infraction later earned Antonelli a three-place grid penalty, which he will serve in Great Britain on July 6.

Antonelli immediately apologized, and while he blamed his brakes, the young Italian went flying into Turn 3 with no chance of making the chicane, and no chance of not hitting someone. Now, Antonelli is on Verstappen’s bad side, and if he makes another mistake, however minor, that affects Verstappen, Antonelli could find himself facing the wrath of a fuming Verstappen, and Antonelli could find himself facing the worst ‘Dutch oven” of his life.  

Speaking of other somewhat irrelevant drivers getting in the way of championship contenders, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto claimed he “couldn’t see” Oscar Piastri when Colapinto pushed the McLaren into the grass on lap 53. That’s a totally not believable excuse. If you can’t see the world championship leader, who is chasing the race leader, who drives an orange car, a car which is side-by-side with your own, then you don’t deserve to be an F1 driver. Or, you have some serious peripheral vision limitations that should preclude you from driving a street car, much less an F1 car. 

Piastri should give Colapinto a stern talking-to, or, better yet, have reigning WWE world champion John Cena deliver the message, with his signature line, “You can’t see me?” Punctuated with a question mark, of course.

Fernando Alonso complained prior to the race start that the seat of his car was “like 200 degrees.” Whether Alonso meant Celsius or Fahrenheit was unclear, but his concern was indicative of the extreme heat drivers faced at the Red Bull Ring. It felt like Alonso was setting the table for someone at Aston Martin to respond with a “Spanish Fry” or a “If Lance Stroll was on the ‘hot seat,’ his rich daddy would alleviate it with some cold cash” joke, but no one took the bait.

Grid Walk Moments

With Martin Brundle off taking joyrides with Brad Pitt at Circuit Of The Americas, Ted Kravitz and Bernie Collins took over Grid Walk duties. They kicked it off with a fascinating and enlightening discussion about how dry grass is more apt to catch on fire, and the science of how water can extinguish burning grass. The science involved in F1 continues to amaze me.

Then the duo celebrated International Women In Engineering Day by interviewing several women holding prominent engineering roles in F1 teams, including Haas race engineer Laura Meuller and Mercedes ERS technician Jodi Snelson, among others. It was likely the first meaningful Grid Walk in Grid Walk history.

The Driver

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto scored his first points in F1 with an eighth-place finish, cashing in a qualifying effort of eighth on Saturday (June 28th), which marked the first time he’d made it to Q3. Bortoleto almost finished seventh, but couldn’t get by Fernando Alonso, who also serves as Bortoleto’s manager. Alonso eagerly congratulated his protégé, flipping the “I’d like to speak to the manager” phrase into “The manager would like to speak to you.”

The Results (MSC Cruises Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull Ring)

POS.NO.DRIVERTEAMLAPSTIME / RETIREDPTS.
14Lando NorrisMcLaren701:23:47.69325
281Oscar PiastriMcLaren70+2.695s18
316Charles LeclercFerrari70+19.820s15
444Lewis HamiltonFerrari70+29.020s12
563George RussellMercedes70+62.396s10
630Liam LawsonRacing Bulls70+67.754s8
714Fernando AlonsoAston Martin69+1 lap6
85Gabriel BortoletoKick Sauber69+1 lap4
927Nico HulkenbergKick Sauber69+1 lap2
1031Esteban OconHaas69+1 lap1
1187Oliver BearmanHaas69+1 lap0
126Isack HadjarRacing Bulls69+1 lap0
1310Pierre GaslyAlpine69+1 lap0
1418Lance StrollAston Martin69+1 lap0
1543Franco ColapintoAlpine69+1 lap0
1622Yuki TsunodaRed Bull Racing68+2 laps0
NC23Alexander AlbonWilliams15DNF0
NC1Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing0DNF0
NC12Kimi AntonelliMercedes0DNF0
NC55Carlos SainzWilliams0DNS0
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