F1 Austrian GP: Verstappen wins sprint race over duelling McLarens

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

After the contest had been shortened to 23 laps as an extra formation lap was required to 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.

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.

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