A Super Spielberg Saturday For Lando Norris

Lando Norris secured pole position, the twelfth of his career, for the Austrian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver had already been fastest yesterday and in today’s third free practice session and was the only one to get under the 1’04” barrier (1’03”971). The gap to second place was the biggest we have seen all season, both in terms of actual time (0.521) but above all as a percentage (0.814%). It’s the British team’s 171st pole position, its fifth in the Austrian Grand Prix, the last one dating back to 2000, courtesy of Mika Hakkinen.

The front two rows of the grid are identical to last month’s Monaco Grand Prix: alongside Norris will be Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari (1’04”492), while the second row features their respective team-mates, Oscar Piastri (1’04”554) ahead of Lewis Hamilton (1’04”582).

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Norris by Christopher Valka, the lucky winner of the “Ö3 Superfan” competition organised by Austrian radio station Hitradio Ö3. The winner was able to get special access and a behind the scenes look at the Austrian Grand Prix.

In the third free practice session the Soft was the most used compound by a long way. Only seven drivers added any variety to the tyre usage colour chart: Verstappen ran a set of Hards while the Alpine, Racing Bulls and Aston Martin pairs used a set of Mediums, with Alonso and Stroll also doing their usual scrubbing-in lap on the Hard.

As for qualifying, there were no exceptions, with everyone running just the Soft. As track temperature came close to 50 °C, the C5 proved to offer a good level of performance even on a second run, whether from drivers doing the second one in the same run or from those who pitted in between runs.

Lando Norris – Pole

“I’m really pleased with that. My first lap in Q3 was good, but I knew there were still a few places where I could find a little bit more, and that’s exactly what I did. It’s been a good weekend for me so far, the performance throughout the sessions has been great, and hopefully we can keep it up. It’s a long race tomorrow but I am looking forward to it.”

Charles Leclerc – P2

“I’m pleased with today’s result. The whole team has been pushing and we brought some upgrades here, so this result is also thanks to everyone’s collective effort. Congratulations to Lando (Norris) for his lap, he deserves it. It has been a while since we started on the front row, so hopefully, we can use the pace we have in race trim to put some pressure on the McLaren ahead of us.”

Oscar Piastri – P3

“A frustrating end to what was otherwise a positive session. Gasly spun in front of me at the last corner and brought out the Yellow Flags, which meant I didn’t get to open my second lap in Q3. I think we easily had the pace to be on the front row, especially as Lando was so quick, but we can have a good race from P3. I think there will be opportunities tomorrow and I’m not planning on finishing third.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“On what is such a short track in terms of lap time, one usually sees very small gaps separating the cars and that was the case in Q1, with all 20 drivers covered by less than one second. That only serves to make Lando’s final Q3 lap all the more impressive. Tomorrow, we can expect a closely contested race, even if McLaren clearly start as favourites. As for strategy, we believe that a two-stop is the quickest choice, running the Medium and Hard. A one-stop is doable, given that tyre degradation is quite low, in fact probably even lower than expected, but on paper it is still significantly slower, by around seven seconds. On top of that, overtaking is definitely possible at this track as there are three DRS zones.

“It’s worth nothing that drivers from three teams – Aston Martin, Racing Bulls and Alpine – will have a set of Hard and one of Medium available, while the Haas pair will have two of Hard and one of Medium.”