An epic battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris ends in a controversial collision at the Formula 1 race in Austria, which puts both rivals far behind. George Russell takes a sensational victory ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz.
In a race that for a long time looked like a boring Sunday drive by Verstappen, a botched Red Bull pit stop 20 laps before the end suddenly brought some spice. In the last stint, Norris constantly attacked Verstappen with late braking maneuvers, who defended himself with all means. A few laps before the end, the world champion caused a collision with Norris, which cost both of them the race.
Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez had an afternoon to forget: the Ferrari driver lost his front wing after a small contact with Oscar Piastri in turn 1 and had to make an extra pit stop, falling far behind. Perez, on the other hand, had no chance compared to Verstappen and, despite the accident and the penalty against his teammate, finished behind the pole setter.
Formula 1 Austria: Verstappen-Norris crash turns race upside down
The winner: George Russell actually seemed destined for third place. From the start he was clearly behind the leading duo and well ahead of his pursuers. But the collision between Verstappen and Norris offered him victory on a platter, which the Mercedes driver took without hesitation.
The podium: Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz came from nowhere to a podium, just as Russell did to victory. Piastri managed to get from 7th place on the grid to the finish line past Hamilton and Sainz thanks to good McLaren pace, after the other Ferrari driver retired from the race at the start.
The result: Lewis Hamilton finished fourth after an uneventful race, while Verstappen managed to salvage fifth place after his accident. Nico Hülkenberg took sixth place ahead of Sergio Perez. Kevin Magnussen secured a strong team result for Haas in P8, followed by Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly. Charles Leclerc only finished in P11 after an accident at the start.
Formula 1 in Austria, start: Charles Leclerc with damage
The start: Apart from Zhou Guanyu, all drivers started the race on medium tires. Max Verstappen didn’t let anything go wrong from the very first meters and easily defended his lead at the start. Lando Norris had to defend himself against George Russell on the first lap instead, which he managed – but only lost time to Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton won fourth place against Carlos Sainz in Turn 1, but left the track and had to give up the position after a few laps. In the meantime, he had even had a duel with George Russell, in which the youngster temporarily lost P3 in Turn 3, but regained it.
It was too close between Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri in the first corner. The Ferrari ran out of space and took off parts of its front wing on Piastri’s rear wheel. While Piastri was able to continue, Leclerc had to make a pit stop on lap 1 and fell far behind.
Max Verstappen storms away, Hamilton and Perez punished
The early course of the race: In the first stint, Verstappen steadily increased his lead over Norris with ease. After 18 laps, he had pulled six seconds clear of his closest rival, Norris, while Russell was already clearly losing ground to the second-placed driver.
Behind him, everything was sorted out. Lewis Hamilton put pressure on Sainz for a long time, but was unable to attack the Ferrari driver. Hamilton later took himself out of the fight for the front positions before his pit stop by crossing the white line at the pit exit and was given a 5-second time penalty.
The 1st pit stops The Haas drivers started the pit stop series together with Daniel Ricciardo on laps 10/11. The top drivers waited longer before turning in for a new set of tires. Verstappen and Norris picked up a set of hard tires on lap 23, Russell was in a lap earlier but was fitted with medium tires.
Sainz stopped on lap 22, one lap after Hamilton, but was able to defend fourth position against the Mercedes driver. Oscar Piastri waited until lap 25 and was the last of the top drivers to get fresh tires. Despite a rather early pit stop on lap 21, Sergio Perez was unable to gain any places and instead had to work his way past the traffic of the Haas drivers. A 5-second penalty for driving too fast in the pit lane cost him additional time.
The rest of the race: Verstappen extended his lead to eight seconds by lap 40, before the tires lost performance and the championship leader began to lose time again. He was not in any danger until his final pit stop on lap 41, as Norris’ tires were also slowly wearing down. Piastri was able to slowly catch up with Hamilton and passed the Mercedes on lap 49.
While there were hardly any changes in the first seven positions, a direct duel between the two Alpine drivers caused a lot of action. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon duelled for several laps, sometimes with aggressive attacks and defensive maneuvers. It was not until lap 42 that Gasly found a way past his compatriot. However, the battle cost the two a lot of time, which meant that they opened up a significant deficit in the long-distance battle with the Haas duo for the lower points positions before the last stint.
Red Bull botches Verstappen’s pit stop
The 2nd pit stops: George Russell opened the second pit stop phase for the top drivers on lap 47. Sainz followed suit a lap later and lined up behind the Briton again. Verstappen stopped at the same time as Norris on lap 51. A slow pit stop of 6.5 seconds and a braking error on the out lap cost him a lot of time and Norris closed in to within 1.5 seconds.
A short time later, Norris found himself in the Red Bull driver’s DRS window and launched an attack on Verstappen. On lap 55, Verstappen had to defend himself for the first time against a braking maneuver by the McLaren driver in turn 3. Norris accused him of an illegal late blocking maneuver.
Verstappen subsequently complained that he had hardly any grip, while Norris also had problems. The Miami winner received a warning for repeatedly violating the track limits.
Norris’ second attack came on lap 59, when Noris braked extremely late and passed on the inside in turn 3. But he was unable to hold the position and slid off the track, allowing Verstappen to pass again. This was doubly bitter for Norris: Because he had gone off the track, the McLaren driver subsequently received a 5-second penalty for repeated track limit violations.
Verstappen and Norris crash shortly before the end
But before the penalty was imposed, there was a big bang at the front. Norris attacked Verstappen several times on the inside of Turn 3 with a braking maneuver, but the Red Bull driver was able to defend the lead again and again. On lap 64, Verstappen covered the inside, Norris tried a maneuver on the outside, but was then bumped by Verstappen.
The result was a puncture on both cars. Norris had to park his McLaren at the end of the lap and was eliminated from the race, while Verstappen was able to continue after a tire change and finished in fifth place. George Russell took the lead ahead of Oscar Piastri, who showed better pace but did not have enough time to catch up with the Mercedes after overtaking Carlos Sainz.