Papaya’s domination continued as Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix finished with Lando Norris in first position and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, in second. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the final place on the podium. Norris is now only 15 points away from Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship, but will the Brit be able to gain back-to-back wins during his home race at Silverstone to overtake his teammate? Let’s go over the grand prix and the lessons we can take from the track.
Chaos started almost immediately as it was lights out and stuck in first gear for Carlos Sainz as he failed to start his Formation Lap. An aborted start and five minutes into the lap later, Sainz got going only for the rear of the Williams car to catch fire. The result? Carlos Sainz retired the Austrian Grand Prix before the race began; a sour note for Williams after a weekend of incidents.
Williams’ luck continued to run cold as Alex Albon retired after 15 laps due to an issue with the car, reportedly the same issue that hit the team in the Montreal Grand Prix. Two consecutive mechanical failures are unlikely to keep rivals at bay in the Constructors’ Championship rankings. Williams needs to fix ongoing car issues if they wish to keep fifth place.
Red Bull found themselves in a disaster of a race with both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda failing to produce the results the team were looking for. Tsunoda is on an unfortunate streak of four consecutive finishes with no points, finding himself in P16 this time around. Verstappen was taken out of the race on lap one after Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli crashed into him, removing them both from the Austrian Grand Prix. It’s not a home track race Red Bull will consider a legacy, that’s for sure.
Leclerc taking the third spot on the podium and teammate Lewis Hamilton finding himself in an admired spot below has pushed Mercedes down to third in the Constructors’ Championship. Astonishingly there’s only a point between the two teams. Recent upgrades seem to have worked for the team decked out in red.
Mercedes’ result, on the other hand, was left to George Russell after Antonelli’s mistake cost him getting further than the first lap and a three-place grid penalty at Silverstone. Despite dealing with overheating, Russell managed to finish P5, living up to his ‘Mr Consistent’ nickname donned by fans, once again.
Driver of the Day was handed to Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto as he gained his first points of his Formula One career. The reigning F2 champion settled in the points nicely in eighth place with teammate Nico Hülkenberg finishing ninth despite starting last on the grid. This was a stunning result for the team.
Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson also had his best career finish in Formula One, claiming sixth in both Qualifying and Sunday’s race. While his previous team scored no points in Austria, Lawson’s P6 puts him back on people’s radars as one to watch.
With the next race being the British Grand Prix, are we going to see the McLaren domination continue to grow?
Written by Elaine.
Edited by Alexandra.
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images at bbc.co.uk
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