Lando Norris stole the show and put on a masterclass at the Red Bull Ring to dominate a McLaren one-two over teammate Oscar Piastri in an epic Austrian Grand Prix where he narrowed the drivers championship gap by far. In pole position and in a smooth race under pressure all the time, Norris was unstoppable, remaining cool to resist a tireless Piastri and crown a perfect weekend.
The race however took a complete another turn just a few moments after lights out. The hopes of Max Verstappen to win a home race were lost in correspondence to the first corners when the Mercedes rookie, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, missed his braking in Turn 3, locking the brakes and hitting the reigning world champion hard. Verstappen drove away waving to his fans as the crippled Red Bull was wheeled off course, a body blow in his title defense.
Even before the official start, chaos had already started. Williams of Carlos Sainz was unable to start on the grid, resulting into an aborted start. When the Spaniard finally managed to get back to the pits, the car caught fire, thus terminating his race even before it started in a strange and alarming event to the team.
The pair who were in a McLaren were the tone setters. Piastri overtook Norris momentarily later on lap 11 after a rare error by the Briton only to be overtaken by Norris with a precision switch back move into the Turn 4 with the leader regaining the lead. Since then, the two drivers exchanged tenths and strategy decisions. On lap 20 Norris made first pit stop and came back in the lead even though he had a slowish stop. Piastri was also even more penalized, taking even longer time in his own stop to cost him time, with the reminder of keeping things clean after an aggressive and near-clipped move prompting a reminder to Norris about keeping things clean.
The midfield was a congestion behind the McLarens. Charles Leclerc got a sombre third place, and Ferrari had no chance to take the lead, but they did their best to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay, and the latter retired on the fourth place. George Russell earned a fifth-place finish, miles away, in comparison to his win in the Canadian Grand Prix and was than 40 seconds behind the leader. Liam Lawson was again very impressive, finishing 6th in his Racing Bulls car.
Later in the race, backmarkers, in the form of a fighting Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto, meant that Norris had to contend with them as the Piastri threat loomed closer to him. Norris could not be shaken despite desperate radio appeals that his swiftness be increased illustrating injuries to the front-wing.
There was drama all over the field. Yuki Tsunoda got frustrated with Franco Colapinto and took a penalty of 10 seconds and damaged the front wing. The retirement of Alex Albon on lap 16 synced the misery of the Williams team because both of their cars were out.
Finally, Norris went across the line by a nose, which was enough to secure an important victory and be 15 points behind Piastri on top of the standings. It was McLaren first 1-2 finish this year, and a strong declaration of title challenge business, on a day when Verstappen would record a zero points finish, turning the title story on its head.
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