Max Verstappen surges to Austrian GP sprint win but Piastri and Norris war steals the show
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris treated fans to an excellent spectacle in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race.
Max Verstappen fended off early advances from both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to win the sprint race ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman enjoyed an excellent launch and began to pull away when the two McLaren drivers fought on the opening lap, but when Norris filtered through ahead of Piastri, they began to close up to the rear of Verstappen.
Norris even briefly took the lead of the race, lunging up the inside at Turn Three on lap five, but Verstappen responded with a divebomb of his own at Turn Four, snatching back the top spot.
The 24-year-old lost out again in the same spot as Piastri spotted an opportunity to scythe around the outside and snatch second place from his team-mate.
Piastri then set off up the road in an attempt to close down Verstappen, but the young Aussie didn't quite have the pace to threaten the reigning world champion seriously, and he was eventually sucked back into a battle with Norris.
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Discussing his fights, Norris said: "A good race between us, especially with Max at the beginning it was good fun. There were definitely things I should have done better in my battle.
"I understand that and the pace of the car was very strong, especially at the end of the race. I had a good battle trying to get past Oscar but didn't quite have enough pace. It was a good race. A good job from the team."
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Adding his thoughts, Piastri noted: "I thought Max and Lando were going to pave the way for me to come through at one point, but not quite. There are things to look at for this afternoon and for tomorrow’s race but we’ll definitely take the points – a really good haul compared to the other teams around us."