Two-horse race – Christian Horner concedes Max Verstappen title bid all but over
Christian Horner has conceded Max Verstappen's bid to win a fifth consecutive world championship is all but over as he proclaimed a two-horse race between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the title.
Verstappen is 61 points behind Piastri – the equivalent of two and a half victories – after he was punted out of Red Bull's home race in Austria by Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap.
Lando Norris saw off Piastri as McLaren secured a one-two finish to cement their dominance. Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda finished 16th, last and two laps down on a miserable afternoon for the team which two years ago won all but one of the 23 races staged.
DRIVER STANDINGS (after 11/24 rounds)
Norris closes the gap to Piastri to 15 points 👀 #F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/z1pk0XbjKN
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 29, 2025
There are still 13 rounds remaining, but Red Bull team principal Horner said: 'The buffer McLaren has is significant. It looks very much like a two-horse race.
'You could see how McLaren are racing each other. They've got a cushion to the rest. For us we just focus on one race at a time. We don't even think about championships.
'What's truly impressive is when you look at how close Oscar is able to run behind Lando with a car fat on fuel, at the beginning of the race, and he's basically making love to his f****** exhaust pipe lap after lap after lap and the tyres are not dying.
'That is their advantage. I can't see any other car that would be able to follow that closely and not grain the front tyres or the rear tyres.'
Verstappen has so often dominated in Austria, winning five times here, and, until Saturday, took the last four pole positions.
But the Dutchman called his car 'undriveable' in qualifying on his way to taking a lowly seventh grid spot. And his race ended at the third corner when Antonelli arrived like a torpedo to T-bone his Red Bull.
'I'm out, got hit, like crazy,' Verstappen said over the radio. 'F****** idiots.' Antonelli was penalised by the stewards with a three-place grid drop for next weekend's British Grand Prix. The Italian teenager, who accepted blame for the crash, was also sanctioned with two points on his licence.
'It was unlucky, just like qualifying yesterday, but overall we didn't have great pace,' Verstappen said. 'We have a lot of learnings as to how we can do better next weekend. It was not an ideal result today.
'We try to do our best and my mentality doesn't change. We have won a lot in the past and sometimes you have to accept when you are not winning.'
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Furious Oscar Piastri launches into F-bomb outburst and narrowly avoids disaster at the Austrian Grand Prix
Furious Oscar Piastri launches into F-bomb outburst and narrowly avoids disaster at the Austrian Grand Prix McLaren star finished behind teammate Lando Norris Result leaves him just 15 points ahead of title rival Oscar Piastri has launched a furious F-bomb broadside at his old team Alpine on his way to a second-place finish at the Austrian Grand Prix. The McLaren star was held up by both of the French outfit's drivers, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, with the latter running him off the track on lap 55 as he tried desperately to chase down teammate and eventual winner Lando Norris. When Gasly blocked him two laps later, the Aussie - who made a controversial move out of Alpine to join McLaren in 2022 - couldn't contain his frustration, telling his team over the radio, 'Alpine still manages to find a way to f**k me over all these years later. After the race, Piastri confessed that he took his battle with Norris a bit too far when he moved to pass the Englishman but locked his wheels and veered perilously close to his championship rival. Piastri, who saw seven points chopped off his lead, which now stands at 15, said: 'It was a good battle. A bit on the edge at times and probably pushed the limits a bit far. 'But that's what we're here to do: try and race each other and try and fight for wins. And that's what we did today. It was close for me, but not quite enough.' Oscar Piastri (pictured) didn't hold back on team radio when both of Alpine's drivers held him up as he tried to hunt down teammate Lando Norris in the Austrian Grand Prix The Aussie admitted he 'probably pushed the limits a bit far' after giving the McLaren garage a fright when he locked up and almost collided with teammate Lando Norris (pictured) The moment, on lap 20, turn four, caused some angst among the McLaren management, who had to deal with Norris's more serious blunder in the previous race, in Montreal, when he collided with Piastri and put himself out of the running. This was not on the same level but team principal Andrea Stella praised Piastri's immediate accountability after the incident. Stella said: 'As soon as he crossed the finish line, he opened the radio and he said, 'Sorry for the situation in corner four. My bad. I know what I have to do'. We have come out stronger and even more united.' Piastri replied: 'I thought it was a fair comment. Locking up and missing the back of your team-mate by not a lot is certainly pushing the boundaries. So, even if I hadn't been told anything, I didn't think it was a wise decision to try that one again. So, a fair comment.' The race-long duel made for gripping viewing, a point not lost on Piastri, who said: '[It was] intense. I hope it was good watching, because it was pretty hard work from the car. I tried my absolute best, and probably could have done a better job when I just got ahead momentarily. Norris called it a 'beautiful one-two' finish for the team. 'We had a great battle, that's for sure. A lot of stress, but a lot of fun. A nice battle, so well done to Oscar,' he added. 'Hopefully it was a nice one for everyone to watch but inside the car it was tough, especially when he was in DRS (drag reduction range). It was a perfect result for the team, a one-two is exactly what we want and we did it again so I'm very happy,' For Norris, this was full redemption after his Canadian nightmare. The result reduces Piastri's world championship lead over Norris to just 15 points Pictured: Piastri with his second-place trophy. Title rival Max Verstappen has conceded the contest for the championship looks 'very much like a two-horse race' between the McLarens He said: 'There were a lot of laps where I was looking in my mirrors. We both want to race hard and fair and it goes both ways. We have to put Montreal behind us and behind me for sure. It is something I wish didn't happen but it was nice we could push to the limit here. 'There were some close moments but nothing that would make (team principal) Andrea (Stella) or the pit wall sweat too much.' It was very much the McLaren show and Christian Horner, the Red Bull chief, conceded Max Verstappen's bid to win a fifth consecutive world championship is all but over as he proclaimed a two-horse race for the title. Verstappen is 61 points behind Piastri and Horner said: 'The buffer they have is significant. It looks very much like a two-horse race. They (McLaren) have got a cushion to the rest of the field. 'What's truly impressive is when you look at how close Oscar is able to run behind Lando with a car fat on fuel, at the beginning of the race, and he's basically making love to his exhaust pipe lap after lap after lap and the tyres are not dying. 'That is their advantage. I can't see any other car that would be able to follow that closely and not grain the front tyres or the rear tyres.'
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Win gives Norris 'confidence' before Silverstone
Lando Norris said his victory in the Austrian Grand Prix was "fulfilling" and "gives me good confidence" as he heads into this home race at McLaren driver drove just the sort of race he needed under intense pressure from team-mate Oscar Piastri to deliver his third win of the season and cut his deficit to the Australian in the championship to 15 the most important aspect of this for Norris was that it served as confirmation of a positive trajectory he has been on in the past few weeks after a difficult start to the season - and that it helped lay the ghosts of the last race in Canada, where he retired after running into the back of his sister McLaren."I don't need to prove any points or prove anything to anyone, honestly. I like to prove things to myself, probably more than anything," Norris said. "It's been a good clean weekend. Felt very comfortable and very on top of the car and performed exactly as I want to and as I need to."It's not that I've not been able to do it before, and the pace has always been there at certain points. It's just there's been some different reasons for different things."Certainly, coming in today and yesterday to do the job that I did, I'm pretty happy."But it doesn't come easily. It doesn't come just because I've turned up this weekend and things are better. I'm working a lot."I'm doing a lot more work than I used to away from the track with the team, on the simulator, with my own team, trying to improve everything that I can, both on and off the track. It's more a positive thing to see a lot of those things paying off immediately. Still need more, still want more. So, we'll keep working." Austria potentially a 'pivotal' race Norris was referring to the effort that has been put in by driver and team to address the difficulties he has suffered this season and which have put him on the back foot in the fight with being the superior McLaren driver on balance in 2024, that position was usurped by Piastri from the start of this win in Austria still leaves him two victories short of Piastri's tally in 2025, and the Australian still has four pole positions to his team-mate's three. But Austria was a potential pivotal race in a number of one thing, it is Norris' second win in four races - he also delivered from pole in Monaco at the end of last problem for Norris is that Monaco and Austria were punctuated by a convincing win by Piastri in Spain and, more importantly, Canada, where Norris made mistakes in qualifying that left him seventh on the grid, and then retired from the race after running into the back of his team-mate in a misjudgment while they were battling for fourth place late in the race. McLaren sat down with Norris - as they do with both drivers after every race - to review Canada, which team principal Andrea Stella described as a "benign situation" caused by "a misjudgment of proximity to the car ahead".This - Stella added in Austria - had been influenced by the fact that Piastri's car was in energy recovery mode at the time, "so he had less power, so the closing speed was faster than Lando could have anticipated".Stella added: "The conversations were all about the fact that the speed is there."Lando, pole position and victory in Monaco. When he touched the wall in qualifying in Canada, he was in line for pole position. He was the fastest car in Canada in the race. Pole position in Austria."The speed is there, we just have to polish a few things in execution and results will come, which is what Lando has demonstrated here in Austria."So very proud of Lando, very proud of how everyone handled the situation in Canada and the fact that we ended up more united and stronger." Norris 'very resilient' Norris' issue this season has not been that he has been lacking pace. It has been that he has been struggling to string laps together in qualifying to prove it. And that has been because of a specific issue with the car that has affected him more than Piastri - a lack of feel from the front Canada, McLaren introduced a tweak to the front suspension geometry aimed specifically at reducing the "numbness" or "lack of cueing" the drivers were feeling. Norris adopted it, and used it again in Austria. Piastri has not used it all, because he felt he did not need tweak is not a performance part per se. But because it increases the feel provided to the driver through the steering mid-corner, which Norris relies on heavily, it allows him to access more of the potential of the car more said: "It is to do more with the feeling that the driver has through the steering wheel in terms of understanding what's happening with the front tyres."It's available to Oscar, but this belongs to the category of things which is almost like a set-up option. It's not in itself something that increases the grip that you have available."Stella added: "We are in a period in which we definitely see that Lando is very resilient."So, credit to the work that Lando has done from a technical point of view, but also from a personal development point of view."And this is typical of all the athletes, all the champions. They never stay in the same place. It's a constant evolution from technical, like I say, professional point of view and personal." Piastri 'pushes the boundaries' Norris race in Austria was founded on a quite brilliant pole position lap, with the biggest margin of the gap was exaggerated by the fact that both Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen were unable to complete their final runs in qualifying because of a spin for Alpine's Pierre Gasly at the final all Norris' rivals were impressed by his lap time, and he never looked like being beaten to race was a different matter. The first stint was a close battle between the two McLarens. Piastri's pass of Charles Leclerc's Ferrari into Turn One after the start allowed him to be within one second of Norris at the end of the first lap, and that gave him the use of the DRS overtaking aid, which gives a 0.7-second in turn, allowed Piastri to pressure Norris. And Norris, having to defend, had no possibility to get his battery back up to full power. It meant the two McLarens were tied together for the first stint.A couple of errors from Norris in the final two corners of lap 10 allowed Piastri to pass him into Turn Three on lap 11, but Norris fought back and reclaimed the position at Turn laps later, a bold dive for the inside at Turn Four from Piastri led to him locking his brakes and nearly collecting his team-mate. That earned him a censure from the team for taking too big a risk with the cars, something Piastri said was "fair comment"."Locking up and missing the back of your team-mate by not a lot is certainly pushing the boundaries," he added. "Even if I hadn't been told anything, I didn't think it was a wise decision to try that one again."It was close at some points, probably pushing the limits a bit much from my side once or twice."But we're fighting for race wins in Formula 1. It's going to be pretty tough work and pretty hard. I thought it was an entertaining race. After the first stop, maybe we didn't do the right thing giving Lando some breathing room, but the first 20 laps were pretty intense. So, it was a good battle."The fight was close all race, and after a strong middle stint from Norris, Piastri closed up again in the final stint. But Norris was able to control the gap and tick off the win. Silverstone 'more of a positive distraction' Austria was a race that made observers be thankful McLaren are operating a policy of open competition between their drivers, for Norris and Piastri were in a league of their acknowledged that an aerodynamic upgrade at the front of the car - involving new front wing, suspension fairings and brake ducts - had contributed to remains to be seen just how much they have moved the team forward compared with the rest of the field; Stella also pointed out that Austria is a track that would have favoured McLaren anyway, because their car was already strong in long, medium-speed corners, such as those that make up the final two-thirds of the lap at the Red Bull Ring. And also that Norris is "a little bit of a specialist in Austria".Next comes the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where both Mercedes and Red Bull have reasons to believe they can put up more of a his win, Norris says, he's "excited" for "the best race weekend of the year, in my opinion".And he rejected the idea that he was under any extra pressure there."Of course, it's a place I want to win more than anywhere else, but it doesn't change anything," he said. "It just puts a bit more of a smile on my face every morning when I wake up."It probably distracts me in a good way more than anything... more of a positive distraction, I would say, more than a pressure."There's pressure in every race. There's pressure to win today, to be on pole yesterday. I don't think I can put myself under any more pressure."
