Norris looked more amateurish defensively against Verstappen's attack in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint.
Norris showed incredible pace in the early laps after the sprint start, forcing Verstappen under intense pressure during the race, with the Dutchman having to make a lot of late braking into corners at the end of the straight, but it was probably only a matter of time before Norris was overtaken for the DRS-powered pace behind him.
On the fifth lap of the sprint race, Norris successfully overtook Verstappen at Turn 3 with the help of DRS, and he could continue to use DRS when he came out of Turn 3, and Verstappen, who was overtaken, did not give up resistance, and the three-time world champion overtook Norris again from the inside at Turn 4, and Norris not only lost his hard-won leadership position, but was also overtaken by his teammate Piastri, and then because of excessive tire consumption in the first few laps of the race, he could only watch Verstappen open the gap, and won his tenth sprint race in one fell swoop.
In his post-race interview, Norris said he needed to improve his defensive skills against wheel-to-wheel turns, and even laughed at himself for opening the door like an amateur to allow Verstappen to pass comfortably at Turn 4.
However, if Norris overtakes Verstappen and can hold his position on the same lap, it will be difficult for him to resist Verstappen's attack in the next few laps, which can be seen from the long-distance rhythm of the two.
In addition to the first lap as a warm-up lap again, in the remaining 23 laps, Verstappen averaged 0.22 seconds faster than Norris, and after Verstappen came back, the Dutchman was even faster than Norris by more than 0.3 seconds, which may have something to do with Norris's faster tyre burnout and the impact of more exposure to the dirty air currents of the car in front of him, which even he doubted, admitting in his post-race press conference that even if he could get ahead of his team-mate again, he was unlikely to be able to catch up with Verstappen.