Lando Norris won after wheel-to-wheel battle with teammate Oscar Piastri while Kimi Antonelli took out Max Verstappen on the first-lap – Austrian GP 2025 highlights.
The event held at the Red Bull Ring was marked by high-stakes incidents, strategic gambles, and standout performances across the grid, with the championship narrative taking a significant turn following the Lap 1 incident.
From the outset, the race promised excitement as pole sitter Norris faced immediate pressure from Piastri, who lined up alongside him on the front row.
The McLaren duo, having been granted freedom to race by their team, set the stage for a tense intra-team duel that would define the afternoon. However, the opening lap saw the championship landscape shift dramatically.
As the field charged uphill toward Turn 3, Antonelli who had started from ninth for Mercedes misjudged his braking and collided with Verstappen’s Red Bull at the apex. Both cars suffered terminal damage, forcing their immediate retirement, triggering a safety car.
Verstappen’s exit particularly on Red Bull’s home turf was a devastating blow to his title hopes, leaving him 61 points adrift in the standings as the 2025 F1 season approached its halfway mark.
At the restart, Norris maintained his composure fending off Piastri’s advances while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc slotted into third after a strong getaway. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton held fourth after a spirited tussle with George Russell’s Mercedes.
The early laps were characterized by strategic jockeying with both McLarens exploiting their car’s pace advantage while keeping a wary eye on each other. This exchange set the tone for the race, as both drivers pushed the limits in a display of mutual respect and competitive intensity.
Piastri briefly seized the lead on lap 11 after executing a bold move at Turn 3, only for Norris to reclaim the position at Turn 4 with a decisive counterattack.
Piastri’s persistence was evident again on lap 20 when he attempted another overtake but locked up, narrowly avoiding contact with Norris. This prompted a directive from the McLaren pit wall requesting Piastri to maintain a safe distance, effectively ending his most serious challenge for the lead.
Despite the close quarters, both drivers managed their tire strategies expertly with Lando Norris opting for a two-stop approach—mediums to hards, then back to mediums—while Oscar Piastri mirrored his teammate’s plan but executed slightly faster pit stops, including the race’s fastest lap on lap 59.
The duo proceeded to deliver the first McLaren 1-2 finish in Austria in 25 years with Norris’s victory slashing Piastri’s championship lead to just 15 points.
F1 Austrian Grand Prix 2025 Results
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Behind the leading pair, Leclerc delivered a measured drive to secure third marking Ferrari’s fourth podium of the season and signaling a return to form after a challenging run of races.
Hamilton fell short of his first podium for the Scuderi in fourth, nine seconds adrift of his teammate but comfortably ahead of Russell who brought his Mercedes home in fifth.
Russell’s result was a modest consolation for Mercedes after the costly Antonelli Verstappen crash with the team acknowledging that the Red Bull Ring’s characteristics and the sweltering conditions had exposed their car’s limitations.
Further down the order, Liam Lawson impressed for Racing Bulls after securing sixth place ahead of the evergreen Aston Martin veteran Fernando Alonso who executed a bold one-stop strategy, nursing his hard tires through a grueling 36-lap second stint to finish seventh.
Alonso’s consistency and racecraft were on full display as he fended off a late charge from Gabriel Bortoleto who claimed eighth for Sauber after a well-managed two-stop race.
Bortoleto’s teammate Nico Hülkenberg followed in ninth, ensuring a double points finish for Sauber while Esteban Ocon rounded out the points in tenth for Haas.
More Austrian GP 2025 highlights include Williams’ double DNF. Carlos Sainz’s car failed to start for the formation lap and his brakes caught fire before the race went green while Alex Albon retired on Lap 16 due to a technical issue.
