Formula One - Austrian Grand Prix - Papaya Sweeps the weekend in a dominant McLaren 1-2

A stunning race in the Styrian Mountains of Austria saw the Papaya Orange rise to the top whilst Max Verstappen's title hopes took a fatal hit.

Photo: Steven Tee

QUALIFYING

Qualifying one saw a relatively calm start, drivers turning fast but uneventful laps, bar a handful of issues at turn four, where multiple drivers locked up and/or suffered snap oversteer on the exit. At the midway stage Norris led the way ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton, an early indicator for the Tifosi that they may be able to claw back some points on the second-placed Mercedes.

Out in Q1: Stroll, Ocon, Tsunoda, Sainz, Hülkenberg

At the midway stage of qualifying two it was Max Verstappen leading the way ahead of Lawson and Leclerc, the two McLarens did not feel the need to run in the first half and left their fate in the hands of a final run on new soft tyres. With just under six minutes to go there was a red flag called due to a small grass fire on the main straight which had been caused by sparks from the bottom of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.

Out in Q2: Alonso, Albon, Hadjar, Colapinto, Bearman

In the early minutes of qualifying three, there was a potential unsafe release for George Russell into the path of Max Verstappen, however the incident was not noted or reviewed by the stewards so there was no further action in relation to the infringement. Come the end of the session Lando Norris was on top, the only driver into the 1:03’s which also set a new track record. In the end Norris was on pole by over half a second to Leclerc.

Top 10: Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Lawson, Verstappen, Bortoleto, Antonelli, Gasly

Photo: Sam Bagnall

RACE

Before the race began Carlos Sainz was left stranded on the grid as the rest pulled away for the formation lap. The Spaniard reported being stuck in first gear and unable to pull away. This led to an aborted start, and as the field rounded the final corner Sainz was able to get going again although he was still reporting that the car felt odd. When he finally got round to the pitlane again he pulled to the pit exit line to wait on the lights, at which point his rear brakes exploded in flames. It turned out the issue with the Williams was seized rear brake discs that had reached temperatures likely into the multiple thousands of degrees whilst Carlos completed his formation lap.

Once a second formation lap had been completed, the field roared into life. A spectacular move around the outside at turn one saw Oscar Piastri get ahead of Charles Leclerc for second place. In a moment of early drama Andrea Kimi Antonelli got caught out by cars breaking early in front of him and, after dodging to the inside to avoid them, locked up his front and rear tires and crashed into Max Verstappen on the apex of turn three. This contact caused both cars to retire from the race and an early safety car.

On lap four of the now shortened seventy lap race the green flag was back out and racing resumed. On lap nine Alexander Albon got ahead of Pierre Gasly on the run towards the turn three hairpin, a good sign for Williams who were running with just one car after the earlier retirement for Sainz.

Photo: Sam Bagnall

The McLaren garage were on the edge of their seats on lap eleven as Piastri made a move up the inside at turn three to take the lead of the race, however Norris had set up the switchback and took the lead back off of his teammate and title rival into turn four utilising DRS. The next lap the race worsened for Alpine as Gasly fell down the order to eighth after being overtaken by Gabriel Bortoleto. 

On lap fifteen the early pitstops started, Albon was one of the first to pit onto new hard tyres. On the same lap Piastri attempted another move on Norris for first place but was covered off. On the next lap Albon was back into the pitlane again as what looked like a salvageable weekend for Williams turned into double DNF, Albon suffering from yet undiagnosed issues that forced his premature retirement from the race.

On lap 19 George Russell became the first of the top five to pit, just a lap later Piastri attempted another move on the inside of Norris into turn four. However, this time Piastri locked up his front tires and missed the rear end of his teammate's car by mere inches in what was almost a repeat of the previous Canadian Grand Prix. That same lap Norris pitted, it was not the fastest stop but four laps later, when Piastri pitted the stop was worse and Piastri ended up almost six seconds behind Norris on the track. 

In the next two laps both Ferraris also came into the pitlane one after the other, both of them pitted into traffic which caused both of their races damage. On lap thirty-one Yuki Tsunoda was officially initiated into the Red Bull family as he drove into Franco Colapinto’s rear right corner on the exit of turn four and spun the Argentine driver who, until that point, had been having a very promising race. Two laps later Tsunoda was handed a ten-second penalty to serve in his pitstop.

Photo: Sam Bagnall

The next phase of the race was very calm until McLaren almost fumbled into another on-track incident by giving Norris another slow stop, thankfully for Norris, one lap later, when Piastri pitted he came out behind traffic which negated Norris’ slow pitstop. On lap fifty-four Piastri’s race was further impeded by Colapinto who forced the McLaren driver into the grass on the run towards turn four, mistaking the second placed car for someone he was directly racing. This resulted in a five-second time penalty for Colapinto.

The final fourteen laps were extremely quiet, and once the checkered flag waved, Lando Norris led a McLaren 1-2 ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri. Following the two McLarens were the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in third and fourth. George Russell was in fifth ahead of Liam Lawson who impressed in the Racing Bulls car. Next was Fernando Alonso followed by the unlikely duo of Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg for Kick F1 Team Sauber and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten.

NEXT TIME OUT IN AUSTRIA

The next round of the Formula One World Championship takes us to the home of Formula One, the site of the first official Formula One World Championship event and the home of British Motorsports, Silverstone. 

In the drivers championship, Lando Norris sits on 201 points, and made a seven point gain on Oscar Piastri, and the deficit to his teammate to just fifteen points. Max Verstappen’s retirement allowed George Russell to close the gap to just nine points in third and fourth. In the constructors championship there was also change, Ferrari managed to reclaim the second position in the constructors championship from Mercedes by just one point, while Red Bull continued to fall off, now forty seven points adrift from the top three in the constructors championship. The battle in the midfield is massively heating up with sixth through ninth covered by just ten points and fighting for what could be tens of millions of dollars of difference in prize-pool winnings.