McLaren gives the rest of Formula 1 the old one-two as they dominate the race and the highlights. Talking of numbers our 2025 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary can be counted on to deliver something for the casual F1 enthusiast dropping by.
This 2025 Austrian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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READ MORE: Greg Norman – Nor-mansplains the Monaco Grand Prix
2025 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – A Lando Norris masterclass in qualifying sees him comfortably first – a result that never really looked in doubt. A few surprises down the grid sees Charles Leclerc split the McLarens in second, Piastri not helped by being caught behind Pierre Gasly as he spun late in Q3. Heroic performances from Liam Lawson (6th) and Gabirel Bortoleto (8th) which could see rare points and first points respectively. Max Verstappen in 7th and unhappy with his car, a long way back being on pole five times in a row at this track.
Race day is hot, which one would think would play into the hands of McLaren even more. This could be dull for those not totally into Lando Norris.
Carlos Sainz continues his unlucky 2025 as he is stuck on the grid as the field leaves for the Formation lap. This causes the first race start to be abandoned as the track marshals wait until the field are almost back to start the race before Sainz moves off the line.
Carlos Sainz goes to pitlane for his start, and not long after he stops there’s smoke and flames from the back of his car. Looks like the rear left brake is causing the issue. The fire is extinguished, much like Carlos Sainz’s hopes of a point today. He’s a DNF before the second start.
The start is delayed by ten minutes.
GRID (Starting Order) – NOR LEC PIA HAM RUS LAW VER BOR ANT GAS
Lap 1 – Lando Norris gets away well and he veers right to cover Charles Leclerc which opens up the first corner for his team mate Oscar Piastri who passes the Ferrari around the outside of turn one. Piastri evens shapes up to take Norris into turn three but thinks better of it. Not better was Kimi Antonelli who raced up the inside of turn three not quite under control and he runs into the side of Max Verstappen which also inconveniences Liam Lawson on the outside. Further ahead George Russell is annoying the Ferraris and almost passes Lewis Hamilton before the Safety Car is called.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC HAM RUS GAS ALB BOR LAW ALO
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED – RACE RESUMES LAP 4
Lap 4 – An incident free restart sees the order remain as was for the front half of the field, but that doesn’t stop George Russell trying his best on Lewis Hamilton around turn five and Franco Colapinto pushing Oliver Bearman wide on turn three.
Lap 6 – The McLarens seem to be cruising out in front, and then halfway around the lap Piastri makes an unexpected half a move on Norris into turn five. That’ll keep Norris on his toes now.
Lap 10 – McLaren radio confirms they are free to race and are doing just that. Oscar Piastri is maintaining the pressure and is all over Norris. Getting closer with each DRS.
Lap 11 – Lando Norris runs widish into turn one which gives Piastri an advantage in the race to turn three and Piastri dives past Norris for the lead. But Norris gets the switch back and retakes the lead going into turn five, not without Piastri trying to get past around the outside. The McLarens keep battling across the next few laps, with good, clean racing, as it should be. Unlike years of dedicated number 1-2 drivers or the hate fueled Verstappen-Hamilton battles.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC HAM RUS BOR LAW ALO OCO STR
Lap 15 – Piastri has a look into turn one but pulls out of a move. He sniffs again at turns three and five but holds off with a big dive. But it is coming. And hopefully doesn’t end in tears. Proper quality racing here. DRS helping. The McLarens are five seconds ahead of Leclerc in third despite the close racing for context of their pace.
Lap 18 – While the McLarens are still just half a second apart, George Russell becomes the first front runner to pit.
Lap 20 – Oscar Piastri has a big moment. He makes a big dive, a lunge if you will, into turn five and locks up his brakes and almost runs into Lando Norris. With pit stops coming, Piastri was keen to get in front and get the priority first pit stop. That stays with Norris who pits at the end of the lap. Norris rejoins 4th behind the Ferraris. Over to Piastri now to find the pace to pass Norris.
Lap 23 – Oscar Piastri stays out for now, and his team is asking him whether he’d rather be 1.5 seconds behind or four seconds behind with fresher tyres. Piastri chooses four seconds, and we will see if that is wise later. Probably will be.
Lap 25 – Piastri pits from the lead and rejoins……5.6 seconds behind his team mate. Advantage Norris this time. Meanwhile the Ferraris lead, and Leclerc hands that over to Lewis Hamilton as Leclerc pits on lap 26. Hamilton pits a lap later.
Lap 28 – Lando Norris is doing it comfortably in front, with a lead of 6.5 seconds over Piastri. Radio from the team also warn Piastri that his dive at Norris before the pitstops was “too marginal”. Fair enough, it was only an inch or so from wiping them both out.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC HAM LAW* ALO* RUS BOR HUL GAS — *Yet to Pit
Lap 31 – Yuki Tsunoda tsmashes into the side of Franco Colapinto into turn five. Colapinto did turn into the Red Bull. It is an end result that helps neither driver. Both will no doubt be sacked by season’s end. One of them probably earlier than that. Both drivers continue somehow.
Lap 35 – The gap between Norris and Piastri has reduced to 5.4 seconds but comfortably enough for Norris in the heat. Piastri might conclude that second is good enough for the Championship when it is one of those Norris days. Piastri is 14 seconds ahead of Leclerc in third and 20 seconds in front of Goerge Russell in fifth. Which sort of makes the McLaren one second a lap quicker than the Mercedes today.
Lap 40 – Piastri has trimmed the lead to 4.2 seconds now, and the McLarens are starting to come up to the traffic of midfield battles. Some of those midfield teams are starting to pit, making for some rare double points for Sauber as it stands.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC HAM RUS BOR HUL OCO LAW ALO
Lap 45 – The lead at the front got as long as three seconds as the McLarens started dealing with traffic, but the gap has extended back out to 3.7 seconds as Norris retakes command of the race.
Lap 47 – Replays of Oscar Piastri running wide at turn on, killing whatever momentum he had gained.
Lap 51 – Pitstops for front runners Leclerc, Hamilton and Bortoleto who is doing a magnificent job in the Sauber. Lewis Hamilton doesn’t sound very happy with being made to pit against his wishes. Lawson and Alonso sit 5th and 6th and don’t look liek they will stop again.
Lap 53 – Lando Norris pits. Oscar Piastri leads. Let’s see how long Piastri can go on these tyres to give himself a chance for a late race charge. The answer is one further lap, as Piastri pits next lap.
Lap 54 – Piastri rejoins 3.3 seconds behind Norris but crucially behind a dicing pair of Colapinto and Tsunoda. It almost becomes super critical as Colapinto forces Piastri onto the grass as he tries to lap the Alpine. Piastri eventually gets past but probably not without a penalty for Colapinto. Tsunoda tsmartly gets out of the way quick. Piastri is back within 3.4 seconds of Norris a few laps later.
Lap 60 – The lead is down to 2.4 seconds at the front as the rest of the top ten has sorted itself out and happily that involves two Saubers, so first points coming for Bortoleto. Ten laps to go to sort this one out.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC HAM RUS LAW ALO BOR HUL OCO
Lap 62 – The gap is now under two seconds and Norris is on the radio looking for pace. It might be traffic, it might be a determined Championship leader looking to steal a race win. Just eight laps now to find out.
Lap 67 – The gap has maintained at 1.9 seconds and it looks unlikely that Piastri will be able to do anything about Lando winning this weekend. But traffic lies ahead, and perhaps one final twist. The battle ahead is Bortoleto on Alonso for 7th. Interestingly that is manager v client off track. Bortoleto gets past but Alonso retakes him a few corners later. Great stuff.
Lap 69 – Lando Norris catches Bortoleto and passes him giving him just enough cushion to Piastri.
FINAL LAP – Lando Norris just about negotiates the lapping of Fernando Alonso but that does get a bit hairy. Not hairy enough for Piastri to get close enough to challenge, but a dominant 1-2 for them at the home of Red Bull. Ferrari confirm next best with 3rd and 4th. George Russell had an even more invisible a race than usual with 5th. And some feelgood points in the lower reaches of the top ten.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – NOR PIA LEC HAM RUS LAW ALO BOR HUL OCO
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Oen of those great Lando weekends where he looks almost untouchable. Held off his team mate superbly in the early part of the race and reduced the Championship lead. And no doubt going into next weekend’s British Grand Prix on a huge high and the UK based Sky F1’s tongues ready.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
GABRIEL BORTOLETO – A Q3 appearance, and first points in the Kick Sauber. A very solid weekend.
LIAM LAWSON – Qualifies a fantastic sixth on the grid and ran in the top ten for most of the race. Slowly turning his season around. Must be smiling when he looks at Yuki Tsunoda’s current progress in the car he was dropped from.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Could have been one of those weekends where he lets himself get thrashed by Norris but he gave his team mate plenty of think about for now and future events in the Championship. Norris knows every race he’ll have to be at his best if he wants to steal the Championship.
SAUBER – Double points in a race for a team who scored once last season is real progress.
THE GRAPE-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Pole sitter at Austria forever it feels, he struggled in qualifying to end up 7th, appearing unhappy with his car over radio and interviews, then is wiped out on the first lap by Kimi Antonelli. Meanwhile McLarens are cruising out front like he used to do.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
KIMI ANTONELLI – First podium to first lap exit for the rookie Mercedes driver. A turn three special seen throughout all the junior races over the weekend, so not the only one, but unfortunate.
CARLOS SAINZ – Qualifies 19th, car doesn’t move with the rest of the grid when the race starts, when it does he has to start from pitlane, and then his car catches on fire. At least he didn’t qualify 20th.
YUKI TSUNODA – Knocked out in Q1 again, which sadly for Tsunoda is becoming less surprising. A clash with Colapinto while fighting over a lower midfield position ending in a clash and ten seconds worth of penalty for the Japanese driver. Tsunoda is challenging Perez for most ordinary results in a modern Red Bull car.
WILLIAMS – Yet another wasted weekend of potential fizzing out.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Told by Flavio to score points, be fast and stay out of trouble to keep his drive. This race was a struggle on all three fronts. Nearly ended Piastri’s race when being lapped, which would have underlined an ordinary race.
LANCE STROLL – A Q1 exit vs Alonso’s Q3 effort. Point for Alonso vs second last on track in the race. Any other drivers would lose their drive. Most other drivers don’t have their boss and father doubling up.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 2 / 5
A pretty quiet paddock, Practice sessions and Norris dominated qualifying made it all a bit low key. The F2 race saw a few good spills including a barrel roll in the F2 Sprint Race.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 8 / 10
A clumsy first corner clash box ticked for Austria. Although it did take out Max Verstappen which killed some of the race potential. But the battle up the front between the McLarens was top shelf, lasting for a good first third of the race.
ANY SURPRISES? – 4 / 5
Great performances for Sauber and Liam Lawson were welcome surprises for themselves and non-bitter neutrals. Max Verstappen being wiped out on the first lap was a shock.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
A show of force by Norris ahead of his home race. But also an important race for McLaren’s promise of letting their drivers race. And they did, and did it cleanly.
ENDING – 2 / 5
A late race copy of the McLaren was threatening but never quite happened.
OVERALL RATING – 20 / 30
A great battle for the lead highlighted an enjoyable race, robbed of some what ifs with Max Verstappen’s early exit.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
R4 – Bahrain Grand Prix – 19/30
R5 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – 17/30
R6 – Miami Grand Prix – 17/30
R7 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – 20/30
R8 – Monaco Grand Prix – 21/30
R9 – Spanish Grand Prix – 15/30
R10 – Canadian Grand Prix – 18/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
