F1 Austrian GP: Verstappen wins “exciting battles” sprint race over duelling McLarens

Max Verstappen converts pole to victory in Formula 1's Austrian Grand Prix sprint, after briefly losing the lead to Lando Norris's McLaren

Max Verstappen won the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix Formula 1 sprint race after fending off an intense early attack from McLaren drivers, which the Dutchman called a “few exciting battles”.

Oscar Piastri eventually finished second ahead of his team-mate Lando Norris, who paid for not defending better after passing Verstappen for the lead during the exciting early stages.

At the start, after the contest had been shortened to 23 laps as an extra formation lap was required due to photographers standing behind the barriers at the first corner posing a safety risk, per the FIA, Verstappen easily led away from pole ahead of Norris.

For the rest of the opening tour, Norris defended against Piastri, who had started third, while behind Carlos Sainz battled by George Russell’s Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton chased on in sixth.

With Verstappen unable to escape DRS threat from Norris in the early laps, the Red Bull driver was even moved to defend the inside lines at Turns 3 and 4, before Norris attacked hard at the former on lap five.

Having braked very late for the uphill right-hander, Norris and Verstappen went deep, which allowed Piastri to get amongst the action through the following DRS zone heading back down the hill to Turn 4.

There, Norris left enough space on the inside for Verstappen to hit back immediately and retake the lead despite locking up his right-front, which sent Norris slightly wide and creating a gap that Piastri surged into to take second from his team-mate.

The battle at the front allowed the chasing pack to close in, with Russell fighting his way past Sainz to retake fourth with DRS-assisted run around the outside at Turn 4 on lap eight – just as Verstappen was starting to pull away from the McLarens.

The Dutchman finally snapped DRS to Piastri on lap 10 and from there he simply eased away to take his second third sprint win of the 2024 season.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“It was a good first lap,” Verstappen said afterwards. “But then once the DRS opens, it's very hard to get out of it. Took a few laps, few exciting battles as well.

“But once we cleared the DRS, then I could do a bit more my own race and then it looked all a bit better.”

Verstappen also explained a radio call he made about his RB20 “clipping too much” in terms of the car having to recharge its battery at the expense of top speed, saying: “It's just because they're in the DRS, so they use a bit less energy, because naturally they spend less time on the straight, just catching up to me”.

He added: “And I think once they were out, then I could go back to my normal management, and then everything was fine again.”

Norris, having fallen to nearly two seconds behind Piastri while Verstappen was steadily adding chunks to his lead, closed back in on the lead McLaren and regularly got close using DRS.

But Piastri held on to finish second 4.6s behind Verstappen and 0.7s in front of Norris.

Russell dropped back from the McLaren pair over the races second half to finish three seconds behind Norris in fourth, with other gaps spreading out between the rest of the leading pack too.

Sainz was a chunk back from Russell by the end and having to fend off the close attentions of Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc was 2.2s behind the Mercedes in seventh and 3.9s behind Sergio Perez, who completed the points positions in the other Red Bull, 17.4s adrift of the winning one.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Leclerc’s sprint race was transformed with a brilliant opening lap when he climbed from his starting spot in 10th to run seventh almost immediately, while behind there was interest as Esteban Ocon held off Pierre Gasly to win an intra-Alpine scrap over 11th.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg faced a post-race investigation for appearing to force Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso off the track at Turn 3 with a late, locked-up dive.

The pair ended up 14th and 16th, split by RB driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Hulkenberg was later handed a 10s penalty for his move on Alonso, which dropped him 19th in the final classification, only ahead of Sauber's Zhou Guanyu.

F1 Austrian Grand Prix Sprint Results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	23	26'41.389		222.979		8		Red Bull	Red Bull
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81	23	+4.616 26'46.005	4.616	222.338		7		McLaren	Mercedes
3	L. Norris McLaren	4	23	+5.348 26'46.737	0.732	222.237		6		McLaren	Mercedes
4	G. Russell Mercedes	63	23	+8.354 26'49.743	3.006	221.822		5		Mercedes	Mercedes
5	C. Sainz Ferrari	55	23	+9.989 26'51.378	1.635	221.597		4		Ferrari	Ferrari
6	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44	23	+11.207 26'52.596	1.218	221.429		3		Mercedes	Mercedes
7	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	23	+13.424 26'54.813	2.217	221.125		2		Ferrari	Ferrari
8	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11	23	+17.409 26'58.798	3.985	220.581		1		Red Bull	Red Bull
9	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20	23	+24.067 27'05.456	6.658	219.677				Haas	Ferrari
10	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	23	+30.175 27'11.564	6.108	218.855				Aston Martin	Mercedes
11	E. Ocon Alpine	31	23	+30.839 27'12.228	0.664	218.766				Alpine	Renault
12	P. Gasly Alpine	10	23	+31.308 27'12.697	0.469	218.703				Alpine	Renault
13	Y. Tsunoda RB	22	23	+35.452 27'16.841	4.144	218.149				RB	Red Bull
14	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27	23	+38.423 27'19.812	2.971	217.754				Haas	Ferrari
15	D. Ricciardo RB	3	23	+39.397 27'20.786	0.974	217.625				RB	Red Bull
16	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	23	+43.155 27'24.544	3.758	217.128				Aston Martin	Mercedes
17	L. Sargeant Williams	2	23	+44.076 27'25.465	0.921	217.006				Williams	Mercedes
18	A. Albon Williams	23	23	+44.673 27'26.062	0.597	216.927				Williams	Mercedes
19	V. Bottas Sauber	77	23	+46.511 27'27.900	1.838	216.685				Sauber	Ferrari
20	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24	23	+53.143 27'34.532	6.632	215.817				Sauber	Ferrari
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