Formula 1: Lando Norris cuts Oscar Piastri’s championship lead after McLaren Australian Grand Prix thriller

It was a race for the ages, an epic duel under the baking Austrian sunshine as Formula One’s top two talents laid on a show that will live long in the memory.

In the end, Britain’s Lando Norris managed to fend off a relentless challenge from his Australian McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to earn redemption for his much-criticised blunder at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Victory also meant Piastri’s lead at the top of the world championship had been cut by seven points, and with the British Grand Prix next up, this coming Sunday, Norris will be aiming to further reduce what now stands as a 15-point gap.

It was a magnificent weekend for Norris, who had been vilified after his botched attempt to pass Piastri in Montreal earlier this month ended in a collision and his retirement from the race.

But he had to fight tooth and nail to keep Piastri in second place as the title race seemed to move up a further notch.

It made for gripping viewing and there was a heart-in-mouth moment for Piastri as, with six laps to go, he was edged on to the grass between turns three and four by Alpine backmarker Franco Colapinto.

He kept control and was able to continue and keep the pressure on Norris. The Argentine was given a five-second penalty for the incident.

Piastri had briefly inched ahead on lap 11 only for Norris, who had started on pole, to snatch back the lead almost immediately.

It was nip-and-tuck before Piastri attempted a banzai dive at turn four on lap 20. Piastri locked his front-right tyre and came close to sliding into Norris’s car.

McLaren promptly hauled in Norris for his first of two tyre changes. Piastri, perhaps as punishment, was left out on track with a flat-spotted tyre for four additional laps and was losing time, a signal that McLaren had seen enough.

By the time Piastri emerged from his stop, Norris was six seconds up the road.

“The feedback from the pit-wall was that the move into turn four was too marginal and we can’t do that again,” Piastri was told by his race engineer, Tom Stallard.

Norris came in for his second stop with 18 laps remaining with a three-second lead. Piastri would stop the next time around but then had to deal with the errant Colapinto.

Piastri continued his charge and with 10 laps to go was back within two seconds. “I need some pace,” Norris said. “Please help.”

Despite some damage on his front wing, Norris managed to stabilise the gap and hold on to the chequered flag, 2.7 second clear.

Charles Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari, with teammate Lewis Hamilton fourth and George Russell fifth for Mercedes.

Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the season, in his team’s home race, after a first-lap collision with Mercedes’ Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli, who was given a three-place grid drop for the British Grand Prix.

There was drama when the start of the race had to be aborted after Williams driver Carlos Sainz failed to get away during the formation lap. He eventually got going and returned to the pitlane where his car’s brakes caught fire before being extinguished by mechanics.

The race started after a 20-minute delay

With PA