Max Verstappen and Lando Norris have had numerous battles for the front running positions so far in 2024.

And the duo have kept all their on-track fighting fairly clean, up till the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen had the early pace, comfortably building up a buffer to the likes of the McLarens and the Mercedes cars in the initial stages.

The tide started to turn in McLaren’s favour as the race progressed. On more than one occasion, Norris was able to keep pace with, or even go faster than, Verstappen. A botched final pitstop coupled with a lack of fresh rubber for the Dutchman’s final stop meant that his seven odd second lead evaporated.

Norris managed to put up a decent scrap with Verstappen, the duo swapping positions on numerous occasions. Unhappy with each others’ antics, the tensions eventually boiled over, with the two making contact.

Verstappen, who appeared to move left under braking for T3, touched Norris’ McLaren, which then caused the former to have a left rear puncture. Norris himself suffered from a right rear puncture, which wreaked absolute havoc on the bodywork of the MCL38, leading to his subsequent retirement.

Russell, who ran a race mostly on his own, had some initial battles with Hamilton and Sainz. With the Ferrari lacking pace, and Hamilton’s Mercedes sustaining some early damage from contact with Sainz, Russell could drive at his own pace, cementing what looked like a guaranteed podium from the halfway point in the Grand Prix.

This then became a drive for overall victory, as the leaders took each other out. A hard charging Piastri managed to overtake Hamilton, and pass Sainz in the closing stages too. The Australian ran out of laps to catch Russell, and had to settle for P2, with Sainz rounding out the podium.

Hamilton finished fourth, with Verstappen in fifth (despite a 10 second penalty). Impressively, Hulkenburg scored Haas’ best result so far of the season in sixth, fending off Perez in a wounded Red Bull. Magnussen, Ricciardo and Gasly completed the list of points scorers.

Leclerc had damage from early contact, which relegated him to running towards the back for most of the race. The Williams and Aston Martins appear fairly similar in pace, with Sauber still marginally slower.

The next race will be the British Grand Prix, and it’d be held from the 5th to the 7th of July.

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