Race Report: Norris wins Austrian GP

Lando Norris converted his pole position into victory for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix closing Piastri’s point lead. Lando needed redemption after his Canadian GP error and he got it at Red Bull’s home race.

Lando drove a good race with several tussles with teammate Oscar Piastri as the duo led Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc home for 3rd on the podium.

Win

A win for Lando and McLaren. McLaren scored a one-two finish and Lando managed to close the gap to Oscar in the driver’s championship. Lando needed a redemptive drive and he looked on song all weekend long. He managed to keep the Australian behind him as Oscar hounded Lando for the first stint securing the win.

A win for Liam Lawson securing P6 in a terrific 1-stopper. He narrowly missed the carnage at turn 1 to then battle Fernando Alonso who also had a win with a 1-stopper. Liam needed to re-assert his race craft and secure points as he is living in the penumbra of Isack Hadjar.

A big win and great sign to see Sauber in a dual-points finish. The team have made upgrades and are starting to look like a stronger mid-field competitor taking point off Haas and Williams with a terrific P8 for Gabriel Bortoleto and a P9 for Nico Hulkenberg. A great result for the team!

Not sure it’s quite a win but a decent showing from Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton with a P3 and P4 result respectively. Ferrari brought some upgrades but in the end, they were 20s off the McLaren’s so they are probably happy with a podium but clearly not where they want to be and the radio call for Li-Co is an obvious sign.

Fail

A fail for Mercedes who struggled in the heat of Austria. Kimi Antonelli had a very rookie day int he office over-cooking T3 and taking himself and Max Verstappen out of the race. George really struggled for pace for most of the race but had a great battle with Lewis Hamilton early on. George consolidated his pace deficit with a P5 finish so not the worst result but clearly Mercedes didn’t like the Austrian track very much.

Not a great day for Red Bull who saw Max Verstappen get punted off track by Kimi Antonelli and then Yuki Tsunoda engage in demolition derby racing to secure a 10s penalty and finish last, two laps down. Yuki clearly isn’t getting it done and Max was an innocent victim but he’s made the same mistake as Kimi did in his past so it does happen. Not a good day at their home race.

A fail for Williams who managed to set Carlos Sainz’s car on fire at the start and then retire Alex Albon’s car a few laps latter. A day to forget. Alex’s 3rd DNF in a row.

A rough day for Alpine and it’s a shame as Pierre Gasly qualified well and looked to be running in the points early on but his Hard compounds were not happy and he sunk down the field. Franco Colapinto had a few tussles and a 5s penalty for his efforts.

Not a great weekend for Isack Hadjar who struggled in qualifying and again in the race. He just didn’t seem to get on top of the car all weekend. I’m sure he’ll bounce back in the UK.

WTH

There’s no doubt that Lawrence Stroll knows what it means to get the best. He’s hired Fernando Alonso and Adrian Newey. What concerns me is that his son is costing the team a lot of points and seems to have little interest in doing what he’s doing. It boggles my mind why they would willingly bleed points like that given the amount of money in the constructor’s championship.

When we talk about the battle between Lando and Oscar, it is interesting how much more radio chatter there is to Lando about driving errors and places to improve during the race. A few warnings about what he’s doing here or there on track. It’s interesting to hear.

Finally, Kimi got a 3-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix and that’s relatively expected.

Austrian GP Results:

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