Lando Norris drops a bold statement: “It’s just the beginning,” as fierce F1 contender Oscar Piastri faces mounting pressure. Could this mark a turning point in the championship battle that everyone has been waiting for?
Oscar Piastri leads the F1 drivers’ championship heading into the Austrian Grand Prix but nearest rival Lando Norris is primed to cut that advantage after securing pole position in Spielberg
Lando Norris has the chance to cut title rival Oscar Piastri’s advantage in the standings(Image: APA/AFP via Getty Images)
A beaming Lando Norris said he would “savour the moment” after producing the most dominant qualifying performance Formula One has seen this year. Saturdays have been tough at times for Norris in 2025 but he was more than half-a-second quicker than anyone else yesterday, by far the biggest pole margin of the season so far.
He’ll start two places ahead of team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri with Charles Leclerc getting the better of the Aussie in his upgraded Ferrari. But no-one ever looked likely to stop Norris who couldn’t contain his smile as he said: “My Q3 run one was good but I knew there was a few places that, if I just got it right, there was quite a bit more time and I did exactly that.
“So I’m very happy, it’s been a good day and a good weekend so far. I’ll savour this moment. Some of my tougher moments have been in qualifying, so to put in a lap like this one today and to have to performance I’ve had is pleasing. I want to keep proving it to myself over and over again and, hopefully, this is just the beginning of it.”
Piastri never got the chance to challenge as his final run was ruined by a Pierre Gasly spin which brought out yellow flags and forced him to slow. But the affable Aussie rarely loses his cool and simply shrugged: “Sometimes it’s just not your day.
“Lando has been very quick all weekend so that would have been a tough challenge, but I think we easily had enough pace in the car this weekend to be on the front row. But I can still have a good race from there. I’m disappointed to have not had that opportunity, but I think there will be opportunities tomorrow so I’ll try to take them.”
Max Verstappen was another who had his final run ruined by Gasly’s unfortunate spin. It left him seventh on the grid, his joint-lowest start of the season so far, with former team-mate Liam Lawson showing up the main Red Bull team at their home race, driving for sister squad Racing Bulls.
But the Dutchman insisted he was never in the fight for what would have been a sixth consecutive pole position at the Red Bull Ring anyway. He said: “In the end, it was not that great for us. FP3 wasn’t too bad but somehow in qualifying it all disappeared.
“There was not a single corner where I was happy with the car and that is, of course, a big problem to have in qualifying. Hopefully we can at least be competitive with Ferrari or Mercedes, but with the balance I had in qualifying, that’s not going to be great for tomorrow.”
George Russell won from pole last time out in Montreal but could only manage fifth yesterday with Mercedes’ performance limited on a sweltering Spielberg track. Team-mate Kimi Antonelli could only manage ninth, behind the Sauber of the impressive Gabriel Bortoleto.
He said: “I don’t think we could have got anything more from that. Whenever it’s hot, abrasive tarmac and high-speed corners, that really plays against us. It’s going to be a long race for us tomorrow.”
