The McLaren drivers had things all their way at Red Bull’s home track.
But while the MCL39 drivers put on an engrossing scrap for the lead, several of their pursuers produced performances which were no less impressive. Others were just downright cursed.
Here’s RaceFans’ verdict on the full field in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris
▶ Missed FP1 as Alex Dunne drove his car but was immediately on the pace
▲ One of his best qualifying performances for a while
▲ Kept his lead at the start and resisted Piastri, calmly re-passing him
▼ Went off at the last two corners under pressure from Piastri
▶ Kept up his pace and navigated traffic effectively to keep out of reach of Piastri
8/10: Great in qualifying and handles Piastri well in the race
Oscar Piastri
▶ Not quite on Norris’s pace but final attempt to beat him in Q3 was thwarted by yellow flags
▲ Immediately passed Leclerc at the start
▶ Tested Norris’s defences several times but almost hit him once
▶ Opted to extend first stint hoping for a tyre advantage later
▶ Lost time when Colapinto forced him off
7/10: Had the pace and opportunities to pass Norris but couldn’t make it stick
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Charles Leclerc
▶ Sat out FP1 as Dino Begnovic drove his car
▲ Capitalised on Ferrari’s upgrade and Piastri’s misfortune to take second on the grid
▶ Couldn’t keep Piastri behind at the start and then had a lonely race to third
8/10: Strong weekend after sitting out first practice
Lewis Hamilton
▼ Received a warning for impeding in second practice
▶ Closer to Leclerc’s pace in qualifying than usual
▶ Swatted Russell away at the start of the race
▶ Pace dropped on hard tyres so the one-stop he lobbied for wasn’t going to work
7/10: Looked like another step forward as he adjusts to Ferrari’s car
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Max Verstappen
▶ Only two-tenths off the McLarens in final practice but slipped back in qualifying and foiled by yellow flag
▶ Blamelessly taken out by Antonelli
7/10: A particularly difficult weekend to rate as everything went against him
Yuki Tsunoda
▼ Closer to Verstappen than ever in terms of lap time but couldn’t avoid Q1 elimination
▶ Passed Stroll but hit him, avoiding a penalty
▼ Made heavier contact with Colapinto, received a penalty and had to replace his front wing
▼ Finished two laps down in last place
2/10: Qualifying wasn’t quite as bad as it looked but his race was
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Andrea Kimi Antonelli
▶ Denied a chance to start his final lap in Q3 due to traffic
▼ Crashed into Verstappen at the start, putting both out.
4/10: Unlucky in qualifying but first lap mistake was serious
George Russell
▶ Fifth on the grid was likely the best available as his Mercedes dislikes high temperatures
▶ Never looked like he had the pace to run in the top four
▲ Passed Lawson and Alonso for fifth
7/10: Finishing a minute behind reflected more on the car than the driver
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Lance Stroll
▼ Eliminated in Q1 again
▶ Lost a place to Tsunoda
▼ Did not have good pace in his first stint
▼ Any hope of one-stopping ended when his hard tyres went off in his second stint
4/10: Seemed to take too much out of his tyres early in second stint
Fernando Alonso
▶ Narrowly failed to make the cut for Q3
▶ Ran a long opening stint on mediums
▲ Introduced his hard tyres carefully and ran a consistent stint on them
▲ Came under severe pressure from Bortoleto at the end but held on for seventh
9/10: Appeared to maximise what the Aston Martin could do
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Franco Colapinto
▼ Reached Q2 but admitted a mistake at turn three problem stopped him getting further
▼ Passed early on by Bearman
▼ Showed poor awareness by forcing Piastri off while being lapped
▶ Said his car handled less well after Tsunoda knocked him into a spin
4/10: Both victim and culprit at times
Pierre Gasly
▼ Missed out on a higher grid position in Q3 by over-committing at final corner
▶ Took advantage of Verstappen-Antonelli collision to grab sixth at the start
▼ Seemed to lack pace whichever tyre he was on
▼ Passed by Albon in his first stint and the Haas pair in his second as he fell to 13th
6/10: Put his car in a competitive position but couldn’t capitalise
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Esteban Ocon
▶ Felt he was unable to improve in the final corners after going out in Q1
▲ Important first-stint pass on Stroll bought him clear air
▲ Passed the Alpine drivers in his second stint
▶ Ran out of time to catch Hulkenberg but claimed final point
7/10: Delivered in the race after qualifying disappointment
Oliver Bearman
▲ Got more out of the Haas in qualifying than his team mate to reach Q2
▲ Started on softs and passed Colapinto on the same tyres
▼ Struggled in middle stint on hards and had to pit early
▲ Did better on the mediums and passed Hadjar but his points chance was lost
6/10: One weak stint in the race allowed his team mate to overhaul him
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Isack Hadjar
▼ Found it hard to improve his time in Q2 so missed the cut for the top 10
▶ Got rid of his soft tyres under the Safety car for virtual one-stop strategy
▼ His pace on the hard tyres went off earlier than Lawson’s and he was passed by the Sauber and Haas drivers
6/10: Behind his team mate this weekend for once
Liam Lawson
▲ Took an excellent sixth In qualifying after beating team mate to Q3
▶ Bortoleto passed him at the start, Gasly and Albon also got ahead due to the turn three incident
▲ Kept Alonso behind in his second stint
8/10: The kind of result he’s been crying out for
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Alexander Albon
▲ Reached Q3 despite floor damage
▶ Gained five places at the start largely due to the mess at turn three
▶ Passed Gasly when the Alpine driver’s tyres start to fade
▶ Retired with a technical problem shortly after his first pit stop
7/10: Did the best he could in qualifying, out of luck in the race
Carlos Sainz Jnr
▶ Picked up floor damage in qualifying and was unable to progress beyond Q1.
▶ Failed to take the start due to a technical problem.
6/10: His race was even more of a non-event than Verstappen’s
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Nico Hulkenberg
▼ Had the pace to get out of Q1 but admitted he made a mistake
▶ Pitted early which gained him places on Colaptino, Albon and Tsunoda
▲ Passed Bearman and Gasly which bought him valuable clear air for his second stint
▲ Lost no time passing Hadjar in his second stint as he out-ran Ocon for ninth
8/10: Made amends for qualifying slip with excellent recovery drive
Gabriel Bortoleto
▲ Looked confident from the word go and reached Q3 for the first time
▶ Effectively lost a place due to the collision ahead of him at turn three on lap one
▲ Got past Gasly when he needed to mid-race
▶ Ran a two-stop strategy but couldn’t pass Alonso at the end on his fresher hard tyres
8/10: Great pace all weekend but should have taken seventh off Alonso
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Over to you
Vote for the driver who impressed you most last weekend and find out whether other RaceFans share your view here:
2025 Austrian Grand Prix
- Wiping Verstappen out in Austria wasn’t as bad as Monza debut crash – Antonelli
- Piastri explains “f*** me up” radio message after third run-in with an Alpine at Austrian GP
- Bortoleto admits he made a “mistake” in fight with “very smart” Alonso at Austrian GP
- Tsunoda on longest point-less run for a Red Bull driver in 16 years: Austrian GP stats
- “Confused” Russell couldn’t tell if Leclerc was “trying to help me or Lewis” at start
Jere (@jerejj)
30th June 2025, 17:25
Most impressed: NOR, LAW, & BOR
Most disappointing: TSU
Edvaldo
30th June 2025, 17:39
I don’t think Russell passing Alonso and Lawson should be a positive when 5th was his position to begin with.
F1Genova (@f1genova)
30th June 2025, 17:40
max a 7 after 2 turns but George a 7 for finishing the race?
Dex
30th June 2025, 20:04
How would you deal with this kind of a situation, where he couldn’t finish a single lap due to someone else’s fault?
I wouldn’t rate him at all. But since they insist on doing so, even when there’s nothing to work with, a “neutral” rating like that seems okay, I guess. Not that it really matters at all. No need to take any of this seriously.
Speaking of Russel, I don’t see finishing a race as an achievement (I’m not saying that he had a poor race, only referring to your argument). If Verstappen DNF’d on his own, that would’ve been a different story.
slowmo (@slowmo)
1st July 2025, 9:43
I’d rate him on his qualifying performance and give him a 5 for the race so in reality a 5 would have been a fair result given his relatively poor qualifying. Getting a 7 for qualifying poorly and completing 100m is ridiculous.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2025, 12:31
There’s a mark in the middle between those you mentioned, 6: both of those you said can be arguably extreme, as in a 7 is a good mark (not neutral) in this rating system, so can be considered too much, but his qualifying was good, he was the victim of yellow flags.
MacLeod (@macleod)
1st July 2025, 7:40
That is because of the total scores if you give him a zero his average would drop instant as this system doesn’t accept none scores.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2025, 12:31
Good point, a 7 can be considered neutral in the sense of his yearly average.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st July 2025, 15:23
Yeah, I would think that based on qualifying a 7/10 would be too high of a rating, so either they should have just not rated him or given maybe a 5-6 for a meh qualifying (sure, he WAS on a faster lap, but then, Leclerc had already done the better job in the first run where Max was unable to do so – that is on his team and on him).
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
30th June 2025, 18:06
I feel like Keith was in a slightly charitable mood when marking these papers. I tend to agree with the McLaren driver ratings and a few others, but I feel like most are probably 1 or 2 points more generous than I expected.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
30th June 2025, 18:34
Agree. -1 for everyone would be fair. Track is not as challenging as others.
Dex
30th June 2025, 20:05
The track is very challenging in fact.
osnola
30th June 2025, 21:10
It was an attempt in sarcasm i guess.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2025, 12:33
The ratings look relatively high this weekend for me (across the board), -1 makes sense, I seriously doubt it’s sarcasm; whether the track is more challenging than others is a debate matter.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
30th June 2025, 20:26
I especially think the Sauber pair should be ranked 2 places lower.
Hulkenberg seriously underperformed in qualifying. That car was really strong this weekend, and Q3 should have been easy for both in my view.
Bortoletto just didn’t have the pace in the race in my view; Hulkenberg was just 5 seconds behind despite starting last. The safety car didn’t even aid with this.
Bortoletto should also have easily been able to pass Alonso. He made the mistake of overtaking into turn 3, and giving Alonso DRS for an easy repass. All he needed to do was lift into turn 3 and then easily get Alonso between here and turn 4. That car had the pace to be 6th today given the circumstances. Bortoletto couldn’t manage as I’ve described, and Hulkenberg had a terrible qualifying given how good that car was this weekend.
Hulkenberg was actually superb in the race, but qualifying should count much more heavily against him than the scores seem to here.
We also need to reflect that there were 3 retirements of drivers that very likely would have beaten Bortoletto – meaning he wouldn’t have got points. This also means Hulkenberg also wouldn’t have – because of his mistake in qualifying.
I think both should have scored a 6.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
30th June 2025, 20:54
@thegianthogweed I don’t disagree. In a way Bortoleto’s good qualy showed what the car was capable of, which highlighted Hulk’s poor qualy, and Hulk’s great race highlights just how strong the car was, highlighting Bortoleto’s poor race pace. It was comfortably 5th best car this weekend, so really they should have been where Lawson was.
The Sauber’s aren’t the only ones arguably overrated though. Alonso was good, and his last lap defence was a highlight, but 9’s are very rare and are the highest grade given out yet, so this didn’t quite seem up there. I thought it was likely a 7, maybe 8 at a push. Verstappen got a 7 despite barely competing in a competitive season with not getting his final Q3 lap in and being taken out of the race. I’d give that a 5. The Ferraris had uneventful races and just finished where they should have with no real competition. Kimi’s 4 seems generous for a pretty egregious first lap error and nothing special in qualifying. Etc etc.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
30th June 2025, 23:21
Yea you have a point about Verstappen. It is basically guessing what he “may” have archived based on what he usually does. I can’t see a driver like Stroll getting a 7 out of 10 if he has a bit of bad luck in qualifying and then is an innocent victim after a good start.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
30th June 2025, 18:15
9/10 for Alonso. Some heavy weighting going on there!
Edvaldo
30th June 2025, 18:25
Yes, there’s that again! Not even Max gets as many high ratings as Alonso!
But let’s keep it quiet because his supporters soon will come and say we hate him.
David (@nvherman)
30th June 2025, 18:40
Absolutely. Let’s give the race winner, pole sitter and leader of every session he took part in 8/10, but Alonso deserves a 9. Makes total sense
Benhur
2nd July 2025, 2:23
And why not? Where they in the same car?
It takes only a modicum of competence to win everything when you drive a dominant car. That does not make you the best driver.
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 0:09
@Edvaldo
Well, if the shoe fits… Find me a single article about Alonso in the recent past in which there is more than one or two people speaking positively about him. If someone slams Lewis, you’ve got about 30 regular users of which at least five will be around to clap back. If FA is slammed, maybe RBAlonso responds if he happens to be around.
“His supporters.” Must mean me since he has no supporters here beside me. Meanwhile, you’ve got J765 + HJ3W (or some similar weird letter / number combo)!who only post when there’s an article about Alonso to insult him. This site is packed with Lewis fans which is nice, but it’s no secret they’re not fans of him and guys like Tony who will never praise FA, but are quick to exploit any opportunity to say something negative.
As for you, you’ve all but admitted you strongly dislike him and/or at minimum consider him a cheater because of 2008 (despite the fact that even the guy who blew the whistle says he didn’t know about the plan) and McLaren despite that being, oh, just 18 years ago.
As for his rating, you could say 9/10 was on the high side, but it seem the ratings have generally gotten more generous lately. 9/10 was once nearly impossible and 10/10 truly impossible.
Edvaldo
1st July 2025, 0:20
And here’s the first one.
I’m not going to discuss anything other than his generous rating here. The topic is not Alonso, even if you people seem to love to talk about him and crave opportunities to do it whenever you can.
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 0:37
The first AND only one…
“..:any opportunity?” That takes some impressive nerve considering:
-I post less than 3 posts per week
-You so didn’t want to talk about it that you brought it up in the first place
Cool gaslighting…
Edvaldo
1st July 2025, 1:35
Aren’t we allowed to post anything without expecting it to become a discussion?
You replied because you wanted to, and i don’t want to discuss Alonso right now. Period.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
1st July 2025, 8:34
So it’s a pity score.
And Lewis gets dragged in and his fans blamed. It’s not even funny anymore, even if it ever was
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 15:04
“Again” and “not even funny anymore.”
lol, again, when has this happened before?
And “it’s a pity score.” Did I give him the score?
The ultimate irony is you all know it’s the truth and are angry you can’t deny a single thing I said. There’s not a single example of a time any of you have ever said anything about the guy that wasn’t a negative.
but the “this is crazy I’m not doing it again” argument when it’s literally never happened before is amazing work.
Anyway, I’m done too. It’s pointless debating such utterly petty people. So, yeah, that old guy is terrible. And what a horrible person too!
Benhur
2nd July 2025, 2:26
Not true, count me on too.
Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
30th June 2025, 22:30
Yep seems too generous. He spent nearly the entire race under a second behind Lawson and couldnt get past. Lawson!… or maybe Lawson was under pressure from Alonso for practically the whole race. And Maybe Lawaon got the RB up higher than the car should. How about Lawson 9/10 and Alonso 8/10.
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 0:15
He wasn’t trying to. He literally never made a single attempt to pass because he knew he needed to stay in the DRS + keep LL pushing for his strategy to work (stretch his tires as long as possible while keeping up good lap times) to achieve the best possible outcome. And it worked as the RB was faster + fast enough to make the strategy (jumping the two stoppers ahead) work.
But it was a great driver from Lawson from quali thru the race or the strategy wouldn’t have worked at all. So, LL deserves a 9/10 too despite having a faster car because he’s still a quasi rookie and has been under a lot of pressure.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
1st July 2025, 8:35
3 posts a week huh. How many hours do you consider to be a week ?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2025, 12:35
Ahah, indeed, I see 3 posts here by him, so he’s not allowed to make another till the 8 july!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2025, 12:36
Ops, my bad, he said “less than 3”, so he’s already broken the limit. I wonder what penalties there are for users who break the post-count!
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 15:05
Hilarious. Find any posts I’ve made outside of this thread and the DOTD in the last two weeks.
anon
1st July 2025, 15:45
Genghis Blond, if you are asking other posters to find examples of you posting outside of this thread or the DOTD thread, then we can point out that you are actively posting in the thread about the number of penalty points that Verstappen has.
Wer
30th June 2025, 21:46
I strongly disagree with basing the score on 1 overtaking manover less or more.
Jmlabareda
30th June 2025, 23:14
Verstappen gets a 7 for qualifying 7th
Alonso gets the highest score lol … how ? Higher than Norris, than Lawson, than the Hulk … how?
Sainz gets a 6 for a non weekend
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 0:25
Maybe 9/10 is a point too or LL/GB deserved the same rating, but the people you’re arguing should be as high…really?
Hulk = blew quali (literally dead last in a faster car), but his race was really good. However, without so many crashes and mechanical failures, he’s likely not recovering from his quali let alone getting to P9.
Norris = should have got pole and should have won as he had by far the fastest car this weekend. He ran off the road and almost let Piastri get by in his first stint and generally couldn’t break away. Other than impressive quali pace, I don’t see anything remarkable about his weekend. He had to beat one driver and he did that. Is that an automatic 9/10?
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 0:39
a point too high*
David BR (@david-br)
30th June 2025, 23:18
Alonso 9 seems a bit generous. But then trying to unlap himself against the race leader on the last lap was legendary status by itself. Completely oblivious to Norris and Piastri racing for the win, “read the small print! I’m allowed to do this!”
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 0:32
Your post serves a fine example for my response to Edvaldo. Maybe 9/10 was too generous, but you actually think he was completely oblivious to OP being there or that even if he had pulled over Oscar is making up the gap AND passing Lando in 1/8th of a lap? Get real.
It’s called race craft, which he displayed in great volume throughout the race. Had it been Lewis, this would never be your take. I’ll give you credit that though, unlike many here, you won’t go out of your way to slam the guy for no reason. But half-a-reason?..
David BR (@david-br)
1st July 2025, 12:16
And your post is a great example of completely misreading a comment. I was fine with Alonso trying to unlap himself, it was a great moment.
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 16:38
I apologize then.
David BR (@david-br)
1st July 2025, 18:09
No problem! I get why you may have thought otherwise.
Asanator (@asanator)
1st July 2025, 22:07
He wasn’t trying to unlap himself, he was using the DRS to protect hi.self from the car behind as he let the McLaren through. He drew alongside because he used the extra speed the DRS gave him then tucked in behind the McLaren.
Cam (@cjm76)
1st July 2025, 1:25
Piastri – “Not quite on Norris’s pace but final attempt to beat him in Q3 was thwarted by yellow flags” I would argue he was actually faster that Norris and would have been further up the road if he had made the pass stick.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
1st July 2025, 7:58
@cjm76
Yea I agree with this. I also think that without him losing out due to the yellows in qualifying, he would have been P2, and with the start he had, I think he would have been able to pass Norris. And I think Norris would have challenged him less than Piastri did to Norris.
So yea, I also think Piastri looked to have slightly better pace.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
1st July 2025, 13:18
Yeh he led every session, qualified on pole and led the race from start to finish but he was slower than Oscar. Better watch out if he does become quicker
mariusz
1st July 2025, 8:49
Why didn’t Alonso get a 10.5? Mr. Collantine, you’re doing “The Benny Hill Show” with your rating. Do you treat your readers like they’re mentally challenged? You should be directing a cabaret.
xmyass
1st July 2025, 9:18
Think the main focal point from this week’s ratings is Alonso’s 9/10, and my 5 cents worth is in line with others. Sure a fine drive, but he wasn’t circulating behind LL for 70 laps on 3 wheels. He never attempted an overtake move on LL (yes, there might be reasons why but he did get within 0.3sec), and he didn’t start 20th. I actually rate the guy, so this is in no way a jab at him, more the score afforded. Was it better, or even the same, as Max in rain from p17 to p1 in Sau Paulo? Of course it wasn’t.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd July 2025, 17:43
I agree, but just to give some context, by checking all ratings this year you will notice that, although no announcement was made, this year the rating system is kinder to drivers, 9 are no longer the super special performances, imo a 9 now is similar to the 8 of last and previous years, other people here noticed it too, there’s been races with multiple 9s now, that wasn’t a thing before.
BenHur
1st July 2025, 9:21
Last lap by ALO was the stuff of legend, he was DOTW for me. And yes he could have passed LAW but he never wanted to. Blame DRS
Genghis Blond
1st July 2025, 16:41
To be fair, I don’t think he could have got past even if he wanted to and I don’t think he could.
Interestingly, here were his comments on the subject:
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd July 2025, 17:46
That’s just impressive racing insight by alonso, gives more context to the 9 here!
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
1st July 2025, 16:38
Need to rate race control and stewards each race.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd July 2025, 17:47
I suppose their ratings would be matching tsunoda’s or verstappen’s team mates then!
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
1st July 2025, 16:41
I thought race control took too long to abort the start with the SAI issue. And then the fire being put out by pit crew not wearing safety gear.