Max Verstappen began the Austrian Grand Prix Sprint race on pole, but George Russell and the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were close behind him.
In 2024, Max Verstappen won three Sprint races in a row as a result of another costly mistake by Lando Norris.
The British driver momentarily passed his opponent to lead the short-form race, but he locked up, allowing Verstappen to reclaim the lead. Additionally, Oscar Piastri easily defeated his fellow McLaren teammate to take second place.
For the second consecutive race session, a single, split-second error cost Norris the opportunity to win, so he had to settle for third. Though they were comfortably ahead of George Russell in fourth, McLaren will be pleased that they were able to challenge Verstappen up to that point.
Lewis Hamilton, two positions behind his Mercedes teammate, was forced to settle for sixth. After failing to set a lap in SQ3 the day before, teammate Charles Leclerc moved up a few positions to finish seventh, while Carlos Sainz split the pair. The final player to score points was Sergio Perez.
In somewhat strange scenes, the initial start was terminated without a clear explanation right away. An additional formation lap was completed after the FIA swiftly confirmed that certain photographers at turn one had been judged to not be in a safe location.
Verstappen got off to a strong start, ensuring he was well ahead of Norris at the first corner as the Sprint, now shortened to 23 laps around the Red Bull Ring, finally got underway. However, the laps that came next could not be described by that adjective.
The Briton was all over the Red Bull gearbox as soon as DRS opened. And he seized the chance to sprint up the inside of turn three and win the race, but it ended far too quickly.
As he turned the next corner, Norris locked up and was penalized. Verstappen rocketed past as he entered the deep turn, and Piastri also seized the opportunity, circling around his teammate’s outside and taking the Dutchman on.
He kept the leader of the championship honest for a few laps, but soon his team was telling him to take care of his medium tires. Piastri started to lose time to the leader and slipped out of DRS range, maybe due to his excessive caution.
Verstappen was perfectly content as Norris soon had his partner all over the back. The Red Bull driver, who is 26 years old, was able to take his time taking the checkered flag because the fighting McLarens allowed him to ease off on his tires and maintain a much more comfortable lead.
