Austrian Grand Prix: Curious Statistics

      Several interesting statistical findings from the Austrian Grand Prix...

      Qualifying

      Lando Norris, who won qualifying at Spielberg, secured his 12th career pole position and third of the season. His gap to second place was 0.521 seconds—the largest of the season. David Coulthard and Gerhard Berger each have 12 career poles.

      With 12 poles for McLaren, Lando Norris moved to fifth in the team’s all-time pole position ranking, surpassing Kimi Räikkönen, who had 11 with McLaren.

      Charles Leclerc qualified second, his 41st career pole, his fourth at Spielberg, and his third of the season, starting from the front row. Fernando Alonso, with 42 front-row starts in his career, joins the ranks of Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill.

      Oscar Piastri recorded the third-fastest time, remaining the only driver to start in the top four in all races this season.

      Lewis Hamilton’s fourth place was his best result with Ferrari.

      Liam Lawson, who qualified sixth, was the fastest Red Bull driver at the start, surpassing Max Verstappen for the first time this season.

      Verstappen repeated his worst start of the season, starting seventh, as he did in Bahrain.

      Gabriel Bortolotti from Sauber qualified eighth, achieving his best career result.

      For the first time in his career, Carlos Sainz failed to advance to Q2 in three consecutive Grands Prix.

      Race

      Lando Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix, his seventh career victory and third this season. This marks McLaren’s 197th win, placing the team second in the all-time winners’ ranking (Ferrari leads with 248 wins).

      Oscar Piastri finished second for the second year in a row at Spielberg, earning his sixth career second place and 19th podium.

      McLaren achieved their fourth sprint victory of the season, the best team result since 2007, and their 53rd double victory in history (behind Mercedes with 60 and Ferrari with 87).

      Charles Leclerc finished third, his third podium in the last four Grands Prix.

      Finishing fourth, Lewis Hamilton matched his best result of the season—he also finished fourth at Imola this year. Last year's race at the same circuit was also a fourth-place finish driving for Mercedes.

      Liam Lawson from Racing Bulls finished sixth—his career-best result.

      Fernando Alonso, driving for Aston Martin, finished seventh in two consecutive races—Canada and Austria.

      Gabriel Bortolotti, in his first F1 points finish, finished eighth. This is Sauber’s best Spielberg result since Kimi Räikkönen’s fourth in 2001.

      Nico Hülkenberg finished ninth, becoming the first Sauber driver to score points in three consecutive races since Valtteri Bottas in 2022. This marks Sauber's first back-to-back points finishes since Qatar 2023.

      In the 1000th race for French drivers, Pierre Gasly finished 13th.

      Yuki Tsunoda finished last; Max Verstappen retired on the first lap—ending Red Bull’s streak of 77 consecutive points-scoring races, a record surpassed only by Ferrari’s 81 in a row from Germany ’10 to Singapore ’14.

      Verstappen’s two recent first-lap retirements resulted from collisions with Mercedes—last time this happened was in 2021 at Silverstone.

      Verstappen’s streak of 31 consecutive races in points ended, the seventh-longest continuous points streak started in Japan ’24. Hamilton holds the record with 48 races in a row in points.

      Alex Albon retired from the race for the third consecutive time.