Austrian Grand Prix Report

The Austrian Grand Prix usually signals that we are slap bang in the middle of the F1 season and can often signal a turning point in the championship. The Styrian Hills signal the thick of the European portion of the calendar, the approaching Summer Break, and a chance for teams and drivers to turn their fortunes around. Before we cover the Grand Prix though, let's delve into qualifying.

Two weeks after his crash with his teammate, Lando Norris needed to bounce back, start putting the noise to one side, and focus on a title comeback, and focus he did. Q1 saw him set the pace ahead of Verstappen and later Piastri. Qualifying master Nico Hulkenberg found himself at the back of the grid while fortune really favoured his rookie teammate. The misfortune for Williams continued for another week as neither driver looked on form. As the final laps came in, Oliver Bearman surged up the order and out of elimination, leaving behind Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, and Nico Hulkenberg at the back of the grid.

Q2 continued in much the same fashion, advantage Norris. Verstappen complained over a "completely undrivable" car with little grip in his RB21. To further compound the stress of an already delayed qualifying, the red flag came out as a small fire broke out on the start/finish straight. Another skid block incident, this time caused by Lewis Hamilton. The fire was quickly extinguished and the session could resume. The usual suspects crept into Q3, but someone who we have yet to see make an appearance shone in Q2, and that was Gabriel Bortoleto who managed to get into his first Q3 of his F1 career. Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Isack Hadjar, Franco Colapinto, and Oliver Bearman were your eliminated drivers in Q2.

Finally onto Q3 then, and once again it was early advantage to Norris, the Brit not letting anyone else take the glory. Leclerc managed to split the two McLarens in the first runs, with Russell a strong fifth ahead of Verstappen, Antonelli, Bortoleto, and Gasly. As the rest of the pack tried to challenge the McLaren man, an incident for Pierre Gasly brought out a yellow flag and most abandoned their laps. So Norris from Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Lawson, Verstappen, Bortoleto, Antonelli, and Gasly were your order.

With Lando on pole and his teammate in third, I think the thing no one expected so early was a battle between the McLarens. Leclerc got away well but went for the inside line, Lando defended hard and allowed Oscar to go around the outside of the Ferrari into turn 1. After some chaos at the start, this left a straight fight between the McLaren boys in the early part of the race. Oscar kept the pressure on Lando until a move into into turn 3 allowed the Aussie through. Lando kept close and the two went side-by-side into turn 4, yielding the lead back to the Brit. The battle continued fiercely throughout the first stint, peaking at a turn 4 lockup for Oscar, nearly resulting in a collision between the two.

The team told them to behave and pitted them onto alternate strategies, just to prevent any further moments. Despite pitting Oscar later and giving him an offset, McLaren later reverted that advantage and pitted them one after the other. Inevitably, this meant Lando held onto his advantage, and although traffic brought them close at the end, Lando crossed the line to take the victory and bounce back from Canada.

"That's what we're here to do, try and race each other and try and fight for wins" said Piastri, "Thanks to the team - to have the kind of pace that we did whilst battling each other, it was very impressive." Impressive it was too, as it caught the attention of Christian Horner who said McLaren's advantage lies in their ability to push the tyres and maintain pace, unlike others.

Title rival to the McLarens, Max Verstappen, was nowhere to be seen during the race, as an unfortunate lap 1 incident left the Dutchman watching his colleagues compete in the 24 hours of Spa. Kimi Antonelli was caught out in the braking zone into turn 3 as drivers in front braked a lot earlier than he anticipated. The Mercedes man was lucky to avoid going flying over the back of Lawson ahead, but lost control of his car and collided with the reigning champion, ending both their races.

"Unlucky, I guess" said Max after the race, "It is what it is. I spoke quickly to Kimi, he came with me to the hospitality. I think every driver has made a mistake like that. No one does that on purpose as well so for me, that's not a big deal." It comes at the same weekend where McLaren return to the top step and extend their advantage over Max in the standings. Could this be the final nail in the coffin for five in a row? An achievement that no one has achieved since Schumacher in '00-'04. It is also Max's first DNF since the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, a long streak for the Dutchman.

Charles Leclerc had a decent enough race, qualifying second on the grid and bringing it home in what Ferrari called "optimum race time" strategy for a third place finish. The Monegasque praised the team for a "great job" as they turn their fortunes around for a solid third and fourth in the Austrian GP. The Ferrari driver said that the team "still need to work hard" but they are taking "small steps in the right direction". The problem with their race at the weekend was they played it too safe, they did a double two-stop strategy despite being clear of George Russell's Mercedes. They could have tried something a little different at least.

Lewis begged over the radio to stay out on the hard tyres as they felt good, but Ferrari refused and told him to pit, which begs the question - why? Why do the drivers listen and obey, surely Ferrari can't make him pit if he doesn't want to. The seven-time champion said "we've made progress as a team, which is really positive." Which isn't wrong, they have come a long way this season, creating a more predictable pace and turning their qualifying hopes around a little. But there seems to be very little point in doing so. They're in a fight with Mercedes, for second, what's the point? They don't need the extra budget that comes with that second place, so why not set yourself up for 2026 instead?

Finally, what a weekend for Kick Sauber. Nico Hulkenberg may have been out in Q1, but he finished ninth place and scored another handful of points. Not only that, but Gabriel Bortoleto secured his first Q3 appearance and first points in his F1 career. The reigning F2 champion beat his teammate for eighth place and was battling Fernando Alonso at the end of the race. There's clear teamwork going on at Sauber too, because even though Hulk put in a great performance from the back of the grid, the first thing he did was go and congratulate his younger teammate. "We should be happy with every small achievement and we are going in the right direction to achieve our bigger dream" said the rookie.

It was Sauber's most successful weekend of 2025 too, again citing that Hulkenberg gained 11 places throughout the race. "Obviously got a bit of help from the race circumstances, but I think it was a solid race from us" said the German. "Very positive obviously, double points. From last, I think that's pretty decent." Yes Nico, yes it is pretty decent. It's a clear sign that there is pace in that Sauber package and a strong team forming to welcome Audi to the sport. They've come a long way from their 10 second pitstops of 2024 that's for sure.

So, the final order was Norris, Piastri, Leclerc on the podium, Hamilton, Russell, Lawson, Alonso, Bortoleto, Hulkenberg, and Ocon rounding out the points. Oliver Bearman just missed out, ahead of Hadjar, Gasly, Stroll, Colapinto, and Yuki Tsunoda who had an absolute shocker of a race, getting a penalty and some damage to go with it. Double DNF for Williams, Sainz' brakes sticking on on the formation lap and Albon retiring with some damage, and obviously the Verstappen and Antonelli crash resulting in their DNFs.