Anthony Davidson highlights Lando Norris’ decision that made Austrian GP win ‘harder’

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Lando Norris claimed a hard-fought Austrian Grand Prix victory over McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri following a tense late-race battle.

The pair fought for position throughout the opening stint, trading places through the opening corners before Norris consolidated track position and eventually received pit-stop priority.

Norris held that advantage through to the finish, though Piastri came within 2.6 seconds by the chequered flag after late pressure.

While Norris got the job done, former F1 driver Anthony Davidson spotted something during the race that may have made things slightly more difficult for the Briton.

Lando Norris closed the DRS quickly when fighting Oscar Piastri

Piastri attempted to move around the outside of Turn 3 during their early scrap, with Norris using DRS down the back straight to retake the advantage heading into Turn 4.

Speaking on Sky Sports F1, Davidson noticed that Norris’s DRS flap closed earlier than expected during the move – potentially making it harder to keep Piastri at bay.

“I spotted live at the time, the rear wing slot gap closes strangely early for Lando’s car. As he comes past Piastri it closes, which is way earlier than you expect, then it opens again momentarily, then immediately closes again,” Davidson explained.

“Whatever happened there, whether it was finger trouble or lifted off, made his job harder to re-pass Piastri, but he got it done just about into Turn 4.”

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Gap between Verstappen and Piastri widens to over 50 points

Piastri’s runner-up finish extended his lead in the championship to more than 50 points over Max Verstappen, who suffered a race-ending collision with Andrea Kimi Antonelli on lap one.

Antonelli apologised for the incident, and Verstappen now faces a significant gap to the championship leader, trailing Piastri by 52 points. Red Bull’s race worsened when Yuki Tsunoda finished at the back following a late move from Franco Colapinto that cost both drivers positions.