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Race report
Formula 1 Austrian GP

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, Red Bull Racing RB20, leads Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, leads Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

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

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

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
 - 
5
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Chassis Engine
1 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 23

26'41.389

  222.979   8   Red Bull Red Bull
2 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 23

+4.616

26'46.005

4.616 222.338   7   McLaren Mercedes
3 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 23

+5.348

26'46.737

0.732 222.237   6   McLaren Mercedes
4 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 23

+8.354

26'49.743

3.006 221.822   5   Mercedes Mercedes
5 Spain C. Sainz Ferrari 55 23

+9.989

26'51.378

1.635 221.597   4   Ferrari Ferrari
6 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Mercedes 44 23

+11.207

26'52.596

1.218 221.429   3   Mercedes Mercedes
7 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 23

+13.424

26'54.813

2.217 221.125   2   Ferrari Ferrari
8 Mexico S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11 23

+17.409

26'58.798

3.985 220.581   1   Red Bull Red Bull
9 Denmark K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20 23

+24.067

27'05.456

6.658 219.677       Haas Ferrari
10 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 23

+30.175

27'11.564

6.108 218.855       Aston Martin Mercedes
11 France E. Ocon Alpine 31 23

+30.839

27'12.228

0.664 218.766       Alpine Renault
12 France P. Gasly Alpine 10 23

+31.308

27'12.697

0.469 218.703       Alpine Renault
13 Japan Y. Tsunoda RB 22 23

+35.452

27'16.841

4.144 218.149       RB Red Bull
14 Germany N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27 23

+38.423

27'19.812

2.971 217.754       Haas Ferrari
15 Australia D. Ricciardo RB 3 23

+39.397

27'20.786

0.974 217.625       RB Red Bull
16 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 23

+43.155

27'24.544

3.758 217.128       Aston Martin Mercedes
17 United States L. Sargeant Williams 2 23

+44.076

27'25.465

0.921 217.006       Williams Mercedes
18 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 23

+44.673

27'26.062

0.597 216.927       Williams Mercedes
19 Finland V. Bottas Sauber 77 23

+46.511

27'27.900

1.838 216.685       Sauber Ferrari
20 China Z. Guanyu Sauber 24 23

+53.143

27'34.532

6.632 215.817       Sauber Ferrari

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