Austrian GP 2025: Norris holds off Piastri for McLaren one-two

Lando Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position on 29 June, finishing 2.695 seconds ahead of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri at the Red Bull Ring. Piastri spent most of the 70 laps within a few seconds of him and was briefly ahead for one corner, but never made a pass stick. Charles Leclerc was a lonely third for Ferrari, 19.8 seconds back, with Lewis Hamilton fourth.

How Norris kept Piastri behind

The gap started on Saturday. Norris's 1:03.971 put him more than half a second clear of Leclerc, while Piastri, third, lost his final attempt to yellow flags after Pierre Gasly spun at Turn 4. Sunday began with an aborted start: Carlos Sainz's Williams got stuck on the formation lap and its rear brakes caught fire in the pit lane, so the race was cut to 70 laps.

Piastri jumped Leclerc at the start and sat on Norris's gearbox from the first lap, which ended behind the safety car. Kimi Antonelli had locked his rear wheels into Turn 3 and slid into Max Verstappen, taking both cars out. After the restart Piastri went ahead at Turn 3 on lap 11, only for Norris to cut back underneath at Turn 4. On lap 20 Piastri tried Turn 4 again, locked up and nearly hit the other McLaren. The pit wall told him the move had been too marginal.

Norris pitted for hards at the end of that lap. Piastri stayed out until lap 24 on a flat-spotted tyre and rejoined around six seconds behind. He had the gap down to about three by lap 40 but never got back into DRS range. Both stopped again, Norris on lap 53 and Piastri a lap later, and Piastri's last push was blunted when Franco Colapinto, being lapped, forced him onto the grass. Colapinto got a five-second penalty. Liam Lawson took sixth for Racing Bulls and Fernando Alonso seventh.

The teammate duels in Spielberg

McLaren. Norris won both halves of the weekend, and Saturday's margin was the striking one: 0.58 seconds is a lot between two drivers in the same car. In their head-to-head he now leads 6–5 in qualifying, while Piastri still leads 6–5 in races, in our count. Norris has the quicker Saturdays. Piastri has the points.

Ferrari. Leclerc was told to lift and coast for long stretches and still finished nine seconds clear of Hamilton. Hamilton argued against the second stop Ferrari called with about 20 laps left, and the fresh mediums changed nothing: he stayed fourth. Hamilton vs Leclerc now stands at 9–1 in races and 8–3 in qualifying for Leclerc on F1 Duels.

Sauber. Gabriel Bortoleto qualified eighth, his best grid slot so far, and finished eighth, half a second behind Alonso, for his first points in Formula 1. Nico Hülkenberg started last and came through to ninth on a different strategy, giving Sauber its first double score since Mexico 2018. Bortoleto vs Hülkenberg is tightening: Hülkenberg leads 6–5 in qualifying and 5–3 in races.

Mercedes. Antonelli started ninth, four places behind George Russell, and his race lasted three corners. The stewards accepted he had been avoiding Lawson's car but still found him fully at fault, handing him a three-place grid drop for Silverstone and two penalty points. Russell ran alone to fifth. With no race verdict here, Russell's lead in their duel stays at 10–1 on Saturdays and 8–0 on Sundays. Red Bull, with Verstappen out and Yuki Tsunoda 16th after a 10-second penalty for hitting Colapinto, failed to score for the first time in 77 races.

What it means for the title

It was Norris's third win of 2025, the seventh of his career, and McLaren's first victory in Austria since 2001. Piastri's championship lead drops from 22 points to 15 after 11 rounds, and Verstappen's retirement leaves him 61 points behind Piastri. Every verdict from the weekend is on the Austrian GP duels page.