Norris hails ‘perfect result’ after victory in Austria as he reflects on ‘tough’ battle with Piastri

Lando Norris was delighted to lead a McLaren 1-2 with his victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, which came following a “tough” race-long battle with team mate Oscar Piastri that caused the Briton “a lot of stress”.

Both papaya cars made a good start when the race got underway at the Red Bull Ring, Norris maintaining his lead from pole position while Piastri took a position from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to move up into P2.

A thrilling scrap then ensued across the opening stint which saw Piastri make several attempts at overtaking Norris. The Australian briefly got ahead at one stage, only for the other McLaren to quickly surge back in front.

The fight started to heat up again during the final stages of the 70-lap encounter, but Norris managed to maintain enough of a gap to seal his third win of the season, crossing the line 2.695s clear of Piastri.

Asked after jumping out of the car about how he had handled the pressure throughout the race – which took place in hot conditions in Spielberg – Norris admitted that it had not been an easy afternoon at the wheel of the MCL39.

“It was a tough race,” the 25-year-old conceded. “Pushing the whole way through. [It was] tricky, hot, tiring, but a perfect result for us a team – a 1-2 is exactly what we want and we did it again, so I’m very happy.”

The result marked a strong turnaround for Norris following the nightmare end to his race last time out in Canada, in which he collided with Piastri during the closing laps and was forced to retire from the running.

This time the intra-team duel remained clean, but Norris acknowledged that Piastri gave him quite a tough challenge throughout the event in Austria.

“We had a great battle, that’s for sure,” the British driver said. “It was a lot of fun, for me a lot of stress but a lot of fun! A nice battle, so well done to Oscar.

“Hopefully it was a nice one for everyone to watch, but inside the car it was obviously tough, especially when he was in DRS. The DRS is so big around here, it’s hard to get him out of the gap, but once I did I could manage things pretty well. But he was still quick, so it was good fun.”

Norris’ victory means that his gap to leader Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship now stands at 15 points ahead of McLaren’s upcoming home race at Silverstone on July 4-6.