Austrian GP: Lando Norris holds off Oscar Piastri for vital win

Lando Norris claimed a crucial victory at the Austrian Grand Prix after overcoming teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri in a thrilling on-track duel.

Norris held Piastri at bay in a thrilling 20-lap duel in the opening stint of the race and then weathered late pressure to claim his third win of the season.

It came two weeks on from his collision with Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix and cut the Australian’s title lead from 22 to 15 points.

“Well done everyone, beautiful one-two,” Norris said on the radio after taking the chequered flag. He added in his post-race interview: We had a great battle, that’s for sure. It was a lot of fun. For me, a lot of stress! But a nice battle.

“Well done to Oscar. Hopefully it was a nice one for everyone to watch. But it was tough, especially when he was in the DRS.”

Reigning champion Max Verstappen’s already slim title hopes took a potentially decisive blow when he was speared off the road by Kimi Antonelli on Lap 1, although McLaren was in a class of its own all weekend.

Norris and Piastri quickly dropped the Ferrari drivers at the start and ran line astern for the opening part of the race.

Piastri briefly got ahead for a heartbeat, diving down the inside at Turn 3, only for Norris to reclaim the inside line and power past at the next corner.

Championship leader Piastri then nearly drove into the back of Norris on lap 20 while lunging for position before pit-stops gave the Englishman the breathing room he needed to bring the car home.

“Sorry for the move in Turn 4,” Piastri said after finishing. “My bad”.

The race appeared to cement 2025 as a two-horse race, with Verstappen not finishing and Montreal winner George Russell finishing a distant fifth.

Charles Leclerc claimed a podium for Ferrari, although finished 17 seconds behind second place, with Hamilton fourth.

Liam Lawson, ousted as Verstappen’s teammate after just two races this season, took a superb sixth position for Racing Bulls with a superbly executed one-stop strategy.

Tsunoda, who replaced Lawson, finished last in yet another horrible performance in the troublesome Red Bull.

Fernando Alonso took eighth for Aston Martin on a similar strategy to Lawson, holding off protege Gabriel Bortoleto in a fun duel in the closing laps.

Bortoleto had to settle for eighth, the first points of the reigning Formula 2 champion’s rookie season, while Sauber teammate Nico Hülkenberg continued the team’s strong recent run by finishing in ninth. It marked the first time Sauber had finished with both cars in the top-10 since 2018.

Haas’ Esteban Ocon took the final points-paying position in 10th.

Williams endured a rotten race – Carlos Sainz failed to start, with his brakes catching fire at the beginning of the formation lap, an incident which delayed the start of the race by 15 minutes.

Sainz’s teammate Alex Albon retired in the pit-lane later in the race.