McLaren’s impressive run of results continued as their drivers took very different routes to a double points finish in Austria.
Lando Norris would start fifth for Sunday’s race in Spielberg and, despite losing out to an opportunistic Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap, he would retake the place before going on to claim a comfortable sixth position to lead the midfield and make up for his disappointment in France.
“It was a fun race!” the Briton declared in the paddock.
“A good start, managed to go forwards and battled the Mercedes and the Ferrari for a lap or so, but had to concede those positions and think of my own race.
“The Alfa got past me on the first lap, around the outside at turn 4, not much I could’ve done and dropped back to fourth and then fifth, then had Max behind me for a little bit.
“I saved my tyres for the first few laps, had it under control then pushed and did what I needed to do,” Norris continued.
“I was just doing what I had to do in terms of saving the tyres and not taking any risks.
“There was a lot more in it if I really needed to push.”
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Meanwhile, across the garage, Carlos Sainz had it all to do as an engine penalty saw him start at the back of the grid.
But with a recovery that was largely missed because of the battles up front, the Spaniard claimed a very impressive eighth place which could have been even better.
“What a race! I’m really, really happy with how we recovered from a tough weekend, and from P19 on the starting grid,” he gleamed.
“I had this feeling of frustration due to the penalty, but this morning I turned all that frustration into motivation for the race.
“We executed a very strong race today. A long stint on the medium tyre and then pitting for the hard compound in the right moment.
“From that point onwards it was overtake after overtake and I made my way into the points.
The only setback of the day was that my front wing got damaged 10 laps from the end when I was starting to attack Gasly, tith the pace I had, I think I could’ve taken P7.
“Very happy for everyone in the team. Great race, great comeback and congrats for another double points finish.”
