Lando Norris won the Grand Prix of Austria in front of his team -mate Oscar Piatri. World champion Max Verstappen experienced a debacle at the Red Bull home game in Spielberg and left after a crash early.
Norris decided on Sunday in Spielberg in the team duel against Piatri and thus shortened the gap in the driver’s ranking of Formula 1. Two weeks after his self-indebted accident-off in Canada, the Brit referred the World Cup leader Piatri to second place in the second McLaren with a convincing start-target victory. Third was Charles Leclerc in Ferrari.
The “Key” Norris had revealed to victory before the start – “The nap I have just done”he said with a smile at Sky. After the race he arose sweaty to his racing “That was hard, it was very hot“, said Norris, “But it was a great fight with Oscar, for me it was stress and fun at the same time.”
Debacle for Verstappen – Early ended to Crash with Antonelli
Max Verstappen experienced a debacle during the home game on the Red Bull Ring, in which the world champion actually wanted to continue catching up to the World Cup leaders in the McLaren. The Dutchman was shot down in the Mercedes in the third curve shortly after the start of Kimi Antonelli, the 18 years of Italian had driven far too quickly into the curve and crashed into the car of Verstappen. “I’m sorry,” said Antonelli in the box, and for him the race was also ended prematurely.
Max Verstappen must end the race early in Austria.
For Verstappen it was the crowning glory of a disappointing weekend, after a difficult qualifying it was only started from seventh place. His failure in the race is a bitter setback in the fight for the World Cup title.
In the World Cup classification, the gap from Verstappen increased to the two McLaren drivers, before the great prize of Great Britain Piatri, which was already up next weekend, is now 216 points, Norris remains in 201, Verstappen remains with 155 points.
Third season victory for Norris
Norris, on the other hand, drove up the third win this season and continued ground on Piatri. The Briton was faster than its Australian stable companion all weekend and was rewarded in the crucial session.
Norris was wide awake right from the start and caught a strong start, Piatri pulled past Leclerc – but after only a few curves the field was slowed down again: Antonelli misjudged three enormous and bowling in the brake. The Safety Car came on the track, both the RB21 and the silver arrow were too damaged to continue.
Heat racing in Styria
Significant position changes failed to stop at the restart and Piatri blew to attack for a duel worth seeing of the McLaren pilots. At first he was able to overtake Norris in curve three, but promptly set a counterattack. Despite her duel, her distance grew steadily, Leclerc could not follow. Especially the sunshine in Styria, which results in high air and asphalt temperatures, played the Papaya team in the cards.
In round 20 there was an almost crash: Piatri breathe and missed the rear of his team-mate. As a result, nervousness broke out at the McLaren Command. “The maneuver was too borderline, we cannot do that“, those responsible sparked Piatri.
Meanwhile, Norris remained cool and expanded his lead over a few seconds. After changing tires, the gap between the McLaren settled in about four seconds and they dominated at will. In the last section of the race, Piatri then experienced a frightened second when he was pressed into the grass by Franco Colapinto at the end of it, but then put pressure again – McLaren’s double victory was never in danger.
Hülkenberg in ninth place, both clean in the top ten
Nico Hülkenberg (Emmerich) was able to make the point chat trick perfect in the clean – despite starting starts from the back in the grid. The 37-year-old landed in nine, teammate Gabriel Bortoleto celebrated his premiere points in Formula 1. For the first time this season, the Swiss racing team drove into the top 10 with both cars.