Oscar Piastri, McLaren (P2) 9/10
Piastri was expectedly disappointed not to qualify on the front row, as he posted a time over half a second down on his McLaren teammate. He made slight amends by blasting past Leclerc around the outside of Turn 1 on the very first tour, and stuck within DRS range of Norris for 20 high-pressure laps. He tried numerous times to overtake Norris for the lead, but unfortunately for the Australian the Briton made no mistakes in his defence. Piastri may have been the slightly faster driver on race day, but he didn’t have the luck when it came to qualifying, traffic or pit stops and was forced to finish second of the two Papaya cars as a result.
Lando Norris, McLaren (P1) 10/10
We noticed a more mature, serious Norris in the paddock in Austria, and this seemingly translated on track with a flawless weekend for the British driver. He aced qualifying, he remained composed on the opening lap and survived 20 laps of brutal pressure from Piastri with hardly a mistake behind the wheel of his MCL39. We are somewhat used to seeing Norris crack under pressure, but something about the look on his face almost predestined that he wouldn’t put a foot wrong. After the first pit stops, Norris carved out a decent gap and navigated lapped traffic to win his third Grand Prix of the season and close the gap to Piastri in the Championship to 15 points. It’s hotting up, ladies and gentlemen.
