Norris race in Austria was founded on a quite brilliant pole position lap, with the biggest margin of the season.
The gap was exaggerated by the fact that both Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen were unable to complete their final runs in qualifying because of a spin for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at the final corner.
Nevertheless, all Norris’ rivals were impressed by his lap time, and he never looked like being beaten to pole.
The race was a different matter. The first stint was a close battle between the two McLarens. Piastri’s pass of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari into Turn One after the start allowed him to be within one second of Norris at the end of the first lap, and that gave him the use of the DRS overtaking aid, which gives a 0.7-second advantage.
That, in turn, allowed Piastri to pressure Norris. And Norris, having to defend, had no possibility to get his battery back up to full power. It meant the two McLarens were tied together for the first stint.
A couple of errors from Norris in the final two corners of lap 10 allowed Piastri to pass him into Turn Three on lap 11, but Norris fought back and reclaimed the position at Turn Four.
Nine laps later, a bold dive for the inside at Turn Four from Piastri led to him locking his brakes and nearly collecting his team-mate. That earned him a censure from the team for taking too big a risk with the cars, something Piastri said was “fair comment”.
“Locking up and missing the back of your team-mate by not a lot is certainly pushing the boundaries,” he added. “Even if I hadn’t been told anything, I didn’t think it was a wise decision to try that one again.
“It was close at some points, probably pushing the limits a bit much from my side once or twice.
“But we’re fighting for race wins in Formula 1. It’s going to be pretty tough work and pretty hard. I thought it was an entertaining race. After the first stop, maybe we didn’t do the right thing giving Lando some breathing room, but the first 20 laps were pretty intense. So, it was a good battle.”
The fight was close all race, and after a strong middle stint from Norris, Piastri closed up again in the final stint. But Norris was able to control the gap and tick off the win.
