168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lando Norris’ dramatic late collision paved the way for George Russell to claim an unlikely win for Mercedes at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix.

F1 editor Lewis Larkam rounds up his takeaways from b♒eing on the ground at the 11th round of the 2024 season…

Can Max Verstappen and Lando Norris stay friends?

Locked in a fierce, no-holds-barred duel for the lead of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, some hard racing bet﷽ween Verstappen and Norris finally resulted in a collision.

The coming together angered McLaren and drew comparisons to the titanic battles between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton during tꦡheir blockbuster title fight in 2021.

It marked the first time that Verstappen and Norris had properly clashed in wheel-to-wheel combat. But following close scraps in Miami, Imola, Canada and Spain, there was a feeling of inevi🦩tability ab😼out the crash.

“I think it’s inevitable, [given] how close they’ve been racing the last few weeks. It’s a shame,” was Red Bull team princip๊al Christian Horner’s s💖ummary of the incident.

Norris hit out at Verstappen’s “reckless” and “desperate” dri♐ving following the clash which wrecked both their races, and said he expects an apology from the three-time world champion.

"If 🐽he says he did nothing wrong, then I'll lose a🎀 lot of respect for that,” the 24-year-old Briton told Sky Sports F1.

Verstappen and Norris are good mates. They often enjoy padel together and share flights to races. So will this first real flashpoint between the pair test their frie🥃ndship?

“Maybe they won’t play padel tomorrow, but I’m sure t♓hey’ll talk about it,” Horner concluded. “They’re two hard racers, they’ll talk🐲 about things openly, I’ve got no doubt about that.

“Inevitably friendships ꦜare put under pr💯essure when you’re competing hard.”

Mercedes soon to be fighting for wins on merit?

Russell ♛capitalised on the drama between🌟 Verstappen and Norris to claim an unexpected first victory of the season for Mercedes, and the team’s first win since 2022.

Mercedes have been making encouraging progress in recent races amid an aggressive development push, but the Silver Arrows have largely been challeng♋ing for the final spot on the podium, r🔯ather than victories, of late.

Toto Wolff could not pretend the win was achieved on merit and even joked that Mercedes currently “nee🌊d two to crash at the front to win at the moment”. Nevertheless, he is buoyed by Mercedes’ upward trajectory and is confident the team will reach a point where they are fighting for victories on pure performance before the end of the current campaign.

“On pace, we were the third-quickest car,” Wolff told media including😼 on Sunday. “And we’ve been this way the last three weekends and that is very encouraging to see that upward trend and🃏 the consolidation of the trend.

“There’s certainly big momentum now in the team to go t🍎o a point where we are able on real performance to fight for the win. And I thin꧑k we will be.”

Should Sergio Perez’s form be worrying Red Bull?

Austria proved to be another weekend to forgꦬet for Ser🌟gio Perez.

After starting 2024 with four podiums in the opening five rounds, the Mexican has failed ꦯto reach t꧋he rostrum since - partly due to a string of underwhelming qualifying displays.

Perez finished 17 seconds behind Verstappen in Saturday🌄’s 23-lap sprint race and could only qualify seventh for Sunday’s grand prix, nine tenths down on his teammate.

He then endured a miserable run to seventh in the main race. Perez was beaten to sixth in the closing stages by Haas’꧃ Nico Hulkenberg, and finished 17 seconds behind Verstappen, despite the Dutchman’s various dramas (including a 10-second time penalty).

Horner once again moved to defend Perez, who was recently handed a fresh two-year contract, amid increasing question marks over his recent form. The Red Bull team boss revea🍎led Perez lost “a big hole” in the sidepod of ൩his RB20 after first-lap contact with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and stressed the damage severely hampered his straight line speed.

Alpines clash again as Haas grab big result

The Alpines came to blows once again at the Austrian Grand Prix, with Pierre Gasly left feeling aggrievꦏed after claiming he had been pushed off the track by teammate Esteban Ocon in the early stages.

"What the ***? What was that? Why did he ♈just run me off the track!” Gasly cried over team radio after their Turn 3 tangle.

The pair were able to keep it clean in a later wheel-to-wheel battle as Ocon went on to claim the final poiꦫnt on offer for the steadily-improving French outfit.

Alpine’s midfield rivals Haas scored their biggest result of the season to date as Hulkenberg brilliantly pipped Perez to sixth, while teammate Kevin Magnussen cꦏame home eighth for a total of 12 points.

Only the second double points haul of the season has seen the American outfit leapfrog Alpine into seventh place in the constructors’ championship. Haas went into the Austria weekend a ♊point behind Alpine but now find ♊themselves 10 ahead - and just 11 behind RB.

Carlos Sainz future takes a twist

It emerged over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that Carlos Sainz’s future has taken a fresh twist, with reports linking the Spaniard with a possiblꦫe switch to Alpine.

The outgoing Ferrari driver is understood to have firm offe꧂rs already on the table from Williams and Sauber, but Autosport and The Race both reported that Alpine have now made a late bid for his services for 2025.

According to The Race, Sainz has delayed a decision about which team to join next season because “Alpine has told him it could become a Mercedes customer” in 2026. The report goes on to claim that the “situation changed after Renault r⭕ecruited Flavio Briatore as executive advisor and started to weigh up whether to abandon its works engine programme”.

Sainz is the key to how the rest of the 2025 drivღer market will unfold, but it seems what appeared to b🎀e a straight choice between just two teams has just been made more complicated.