After a gap of 25 years, McLaren has finished first and second in the Austrian Grand Prix. Back in 2000, the one-two came courtesy of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, while today, Lando Norris was victorious in Spielberg, taking his seventh career win and his third of this season. Team-mate Oscar Piastri crossed the finish line right on the Englishman’s tail. Rounding off the podium was Charles Leclerc for Ferrari.

This is McLaren’s 197th win, the eighth this season and the seventh at this race. Spielberg is proving to be the track that suits Norris best in F1: one win, one pole position, three podium finishes and 108 points scored from nine starts.

THE DAY ON TRACK:
Soft and Medium were both seen on the starting grid. Five drivers (Gasly, Colapinto, Bearman, Hadjar and Hulkenberg) drove the first stint on the C5, while the other 15 went with the C4.

As the race evolved, naturally the Hard also came into play, with Ocon using both his sets of C3, having started on the Medium. His Haas team-mate, Oliver Bearman, the only other driver with two sets of Hards available, actually crossed the finish line on a set of Mediums. The English Haas driver, along with France’s Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls and Aston Martin’s Canadian driver Lance Stroll, were the three drivers who used all three compounds. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was the only driver never to have used the hardest compound available in Spielberg.

The race distance was reduced by one lap, after the start was aborted because Carlos Sainz in the Williams was left immobile on the grid on the formation lap. The longest stint overall was down to Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) who drove 41 laps on the Hard. As for the Medium, Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) takes the prize with 33 laps. The Spaniard and New Zealander Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) planned to make just one pit stop and they both finished in the points.

MARIO ISOLA - MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR
“The first race weekend in the height of summer saw our tyres behave as expected, both yesterday in qualifying and today in the race. Over 70 laps run in very high temperatures – the track varied between 52 and 55 °C – degradation across the three compounds was higher than during Friday free practice, when temperatures were between 15 and 20 °C lower, however not by a significant amount.

“All three compounds proved they could play their part, both at the start, with five drivers choosing the C5 for the first stint, while Stroll tried to do something different, fitting it with about 15 laps remaining. As expected, the two-stop was the quickest strategy, but those who tried the one-stop proved to be pretty competitive, to the extent of finishing in the top ten. In terms of performance, the Hard and Medium proved to be quite similar, while the Soft was competitive in the opening laps, but then obviously dropped off, starting from around laps 7 and 8.

“Now we head for Silverstone, a track that is always very hard on tyres. We have chosen a trio of dry weather compounds that is a step softer than in the past (C2, C3 and C4) and we are keen to see how they will perform and what effect this will have on race strategy."

FORMULA 2
Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) took his third win of the season in the Feature Race. The Dutchman started from third on the grid, before taking the lead and controlling the race from start to finish. Ireland’s Alexander Dunne (Rodin Motorsport) went from seventh to second, while poleman Leonardo Fornaroli (Invicta Racing) rounded off the podium. With 30 points scored this weekend, Verschoor moves into the lead of the Drivers’ championship on 114 ponts, six ahead of Dunne. The American Jack Crawford (DAMS Lucas Oil) who finished fourth today, is next up on 85 points, two more than Fornaroli.

18 drivers opted to start on the Supersoft, the remaining four on the Soft. The softest compound was very quick but experienced significant degradation, so that the initial stint was very short. Overall, the Soft was easier to manage, even though it suffered from overheating and graining. Drivers had to be cautious in their approach to several corners to maintain sufficient balance of performance between the two axles, even if in the end rear tyre wear made itself felt. Those who took a conservative approach early on in the stint then had the advantage towards the end.

FORMULA 3
Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech TGR) won the Feature Race. The Norwegian actually crossed the finish line second behind Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing) who was later disqualified for a technical infringement. Promoted to second therefore was Germany’s Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport) while inheriting the final place on the podium was Spain’s Mari Boya (Campos Racing).

There were plenty of overtaking opportunities in the race. Tyre degradation was manageable but unavoidable, allowing drivers to decide when to push or when to save their tyres to then use them at the most opportune moment.

Rafael Camara (Trident), fifth today, leads the championship on 117 points. Tramnitz moves up to second on 93, moving ahead of third placed Tsolov on 89.”