The Briton Lando Norris (McLaren) won with authority the Austrian Grand Prix, 11th round of 24 of the Formula 1 world championship, contested on Sunday in strong heat at the Red Bull Ring.
The vice-world champion, who started from pole position, beat his Australian teammate Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
The reigning four-time world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was forced to retire in the first round.
Seventh victory
Two weeks after his mistake at the end of the race in Canada, when he crashed into Piastri and was forced to retire, losing ten precious points in the title race, Norris redeemed himself by securing the seventh victory of his career, the third this season. This allows the Englishman to come back to 15 lengths behind the Australian.
“It was a difficult race, we had to push constantly, it was tricky and tiring. We wanted to achieve a double so I’m happy. The battle with Oscar (Piastri) was beautiful,” underlined the Englishman.
Verstappen hit
The big loser of the day is therefore “Mad Max”. While he started in seventh position and had already gained a place, the Dutchman was hit from behind at turn 3 by the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), whose wheels locked when braking and who skidded, unable to do anything to avoid the collision.
Verstappen, third in the world championship, is now 46 and 61 points behind Norris and Piastri respectively and sees his chances of retaining his crown dwindling even further.
Ferrari, on the other hand, had a good day as Leclerc took a place on the podium by finishing third, just ahead of his British teammate Lewis Hamilton. However, the Scuderia was never able to worry McLaren on Sunday on the hilly Austrian track.
Alonso finishes 7th
Briton George Russell (Mercedes), winner in Canada two weeks ago and at the Red Bull Ring last season, finished in fifth place, ahead of New Zealander Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), who achieved the best result of his F1 career.
Spanish veteran Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) snatched seventh place by resisting Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), who scored the first points of his career in F1. The rookie beat his German teammate Nico Hülkenberg, confirming the revival of the Swiss team.
The Top 10 is completed by the French Esteban Ocon (Haas), who snatched the last point at stake even though he had only started in 17th position.
The two other tricolors, Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine), had to settle for 12th and 13th places.
