Norris Shows Title Mettle by Holding Off Piastri in Thriller

Lando Norris required a statement drive to reassert his world title credentials and he delivered it emphatically with victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.

- Giles Richards

The British driver is famously self-critical but, if his harshest critic is himself, this was a commanding riposte to all the doubters.

After an impossibly tense battle with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, during which the pair fought all the way to the flag, Norris held the upper hand to take the win and close to within 15 points of the Australian at the top of the championship, indicating the two could yet duke this one out all the way to Abu Dhabi in December.

In stark contrast and in perhaps a microcosm of how the season is going for Max Verstappen, the world champion's title hopes received a huge setback when he was knocked out on the opening lap, having been struck by the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.

That he and his Red Bull team took it with such equanimity perhaps indicated that deep down they know this really is McLaren's two-horse race. It is hard not to imagine Verstappen would have been puce with rage at enduring a "did not finish" were he at the heart of a title fight. As it is, he now trails Piastri by 61 points.

Hearts were in mouths at McLaren with Norris and Piastri having clashed at the last round in Canada, and the pair vied to thrilling effect over the opening third of the race, ducking and diving at one another in a bravura display that remained nip and tuck all the way to the finish.