Piastri surprised to beat Ferrari after P4 in Austria as Norris pinpoints where he lost out in P7

Oscar Piastri conceded that it was a “a bit of a surprise” that Ferrari were not stronger in the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Australian feeling positive after beating both of the Scuderia’s cars in P4 while Lando Norris had to settle for P7 following a tricky opening lap.

The papaya duo appeared slightly disappointed after qualifying in P6 and P7 on Saturday, some way off the Ferraris in P2 and P3. However, Piastri was able to climb up the order to finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Sunday’s race, who both appeared to be struggling for pace as well as each going onto a three-stop strategy.

Asked after the Grand Prix if it was something of a surprise to move up to fourth, having started from seventh on the grid, Piastri answered: “A bit, yeah. I think today was a really strong afternoon.

“I think it was a bit of a surprise that the Ferraris were not stronger, but on a personal level I thought it was a really good race.

“Barcelona was a big struggle and [we] had some things to learn and improve on from there, and I feel like this weekend’s been a massive improvement from that, in a race that in some ways was a bit similar. Overall very happy with today.”

Despite this, Piastri admitted that it was “very difficult to know” whether their level of performance at the Red Bull Ring was track-specific – meaning that the team's position against their rivals is not totally clear.

“I think when it’s this hot, that seems to be beneficial for us at the moment,” he explained. “It has been in the past few years, and I think this year it’s still a bit of a trend, but we’re lacking the performance to go with it.

“So yeah, I think it was again a positive we’re able to beat Ferrari – we’ve still got a lot to find to catch Mercedes, and now Red Bull look very quick as well, so it’s going to be a constantly changing order, I think.”

On the other side of the garage, Norris felt that his race was affected by losing positions on the opening lap but spoke positively about the pace of the car in clean air.

“I think [the pace was] okay, just track position dominated today, so I lost out on Lap 1 to a couple of cars and lost out to [Isack] Hadjar in the first round of pit stops because they had to box Oscar first, which is the way that we do things,” the Briton said.

“So yeah, unfortunate from my side, and just impossible to get back past a car that’s quicker. Max [Verstappen] is P2 and almost winning the race, so the chance to beat Hadjar was not possible today from my side.

“But otherwise I think clearly the car in clean air was very strong, I just lost a little bit too much in the very beginning.”

Pushed on how much work there is for McLaren to do in order to get themselves into the fight with their rivals, Norris responded: “Again it’s just a unique track.

“I think if we go back to some others, again, it changes a good amount and Ferrari are the quickest again, so I think this track layout seems to maybe help us a little bit more today. The fact we beat two Ferraris is a good thing, but we have a lot more work to do.”