The car featured a new floor and additional guide vanes near the Z-shape cutout for the Austrian Grand Prix (also held at the Red Bull Ring), and the cut-out's area was reduced. Norris qualified second for the race, 0.048 seconds off polesitter Verstappen's time and out-qualifying both works Mercedes cars – the first time a McLaren had qualified on the front row since , and Norris' career-best qualifying result. Ricciardo qualified in thirteenth. Norris held position for the first 20 laps, and in doing so attracted a five-second penalty for forcing Pérez to run wide. The penalty was served on-track at Norris' scheduled pit stop, and he recovered to overtake Hamilton for third place on lap 52 and finished on the podium for the third time in the 2021 season. Both Seidl and Norris said they believed the team would have been able to challenge for second place had they not been awarded a penalty. Ricciardo finished in seventh, and improved to eighth in the Drivers' Championship.