F1 – Verstappen Wins Austria Sprint Ahead Of Piastri And Norris

Max Verstappen won a tight early battle with Lando Norris to take his third straight Sprint win of 2024. After briefly stealing the lead from Verstappen soon after the start, Norris was passed again by Verstappen and also by McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri who took P2 ahead of the Briton.

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After an extras formation lap caused by photographers straying beyond the barriers in Turn 1 and causing a safety hazard, Verstappen reacted quickest to the start lights and the Red Bull driver powered into the lead on the run to Turn 1. Norris held off team-mate Piastri to hold second place but behind them Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz battled his way past Mercedes’ George Russell to take P4.

Sainz’s team-mate Charles Leclerc also made a good start from P10 and after climbing to eighth at the start, he then passed Red Bull Sergio Pérez into Turn 6 to rise to seventh place behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

With DRS coming into play at the end of lap one both McLarens stayed close to the race leader Verstappen and on lap 5, with his rear wing open, Norris roared up to the champion and flew past in Turn 3 to steal the lead.

Verstappen immediately fought back and on the way into Turn 4 he dived past the McLaren on the inside to retake the lead once again. Forced to the outside, Norris left the door open and Piastri swept through to take P3 around the outside of Turn 6. Meanwhile, just behind the leading trio, on lap 8, Russell used DRS to close up to Sainz into Turn 3 and then outdragged the Ferrari driver on the run to Turn 4 to take fourth place.

Hamilton was still locked into sixth place just 0.8s off the Spaniard, with Leclerc also within DRS range of the Mercedes man. Pérez, struggling for pace, had dropped to 2s behind the second Ferrari.

At the front, after repelling the early challenges, Verstappen began to build a slim gap to the McLaren’s and by the start of lap 14, the championship leader was 2s clear of Piastri.

Norris, meanwhile, had recovered from losing second and was within DRS range of his team-mate. Piastri kept his cool under pressure, however, and over the following laps the Australian deployed his battery power well to comfortably keep the British driver at bay.

And there the gaps began to solidify. After 23 laps Verstappen powered across the line to take his third Sprint win of the season and his 10^th Sprint win overall.

Piastri took second place ahead of Norris, with Russell three seconds behind in fourth place. Sainz finished fifth ahead of Hamilton, with Leclerc in seventh and the final point on offer went to Pérez, who finished 17 seconds behind his team-mate.

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