Norris puts Canada behind him with 'stressful' Austrian GP win

Lando Norris says his victory in the Austrian Grand Prix allows him to put his error in Canada behind him, despite the stressful nature of the battle with teammate Oscar Piastri.

McLaren allowed its two drivers to race each other throughout at the Red Bull Ring, and Piastri put pressure on Norris for the entire first stint, once getting past into Turn 3 only to lose the lead again to his teammate at Turn 4. Norris held on to win a race in which he rarely had a gap of more than 4s, and he says it was the best way to respond after crashing into the back of Piastri last time out in Montreal.

“Crossing the line at the end – that was the best bit!” Norris said. “But there was plenty of fun along the way with Oscar in the first stint especially. Some close moments, some good battles. Just a lot of laps of looking in my mirrors out of Turn 1 and all the way down to Turn 3. It was stressful for sure.

“Not the most comfortable position to be in, but it was a good battle between us – quite a long race from that point onwards because I never had a lovely gap and Oscar kept coming at me the next two stints. Good fun, a tricky race, but well managed.

“We just had some good battles. We've had a couple in the past. Granted, they probably didn't last as long as they did this weekend.

“I think we both knew what to expect from each other. We both want to race hard and race fair. It goes both ways, and of course we have to put Montreal behind us and behind me for sure. It's something I wish never happened, but it was nice that we could go out and have a good battle and push things to the limits.

“There were some close moments, but nothing that was hopefully something that would make Andrea [Stella] or the pit wall sweat too much.”

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Norris says the victory – his third of the season – is down to both a weekend without mistakes and also the result of plenty of hard work behind the scenes.

“It's certainly fulfilling for me. It gives me good confidence," he said. "I don't need to prove any points or prove anything to anyone, honestly. I like to prove things to myself, I guess, probably more than anything. Certainly, it's been a good, clean weekend from FP2 onwards. I felt very comfortable and very on top of the car and performed exactly as I want to and as I need to.

“Had a clean weekend. ... I've not been able to do it before, and the pace has always been there at certain points. There's been some different reasons for different things, but certainly coming in today and yesterday to do the job that I did, I'm pretty happy with.

“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 and with my own team.

“I'm trying to improve everything that I can, both on and off the track, and I think it's more a positive thing to see a lot of those things paying off immediately. It’s a good step in the right direction [but] I still need more, still want more, so we'll keep working.”