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Another pole
position for Max Verstappen as he continues to put together the perfect
weekend: fastest in free practice, fastest in Sprint Qualifying, first in
the Sprint Race and quickest in qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. It’s
the seventh time the Dutchman has topped the time sheet in grid-deciding
sessions at this circuit: prior to today’s pole he was quickest at the 2021
Styrian Grand Prix, the 2021 and 2023 Austrian Grands Prix, along with
Sprint Qualifying for the past two years. The three-time world champion now
has 40 pole positions to his name, while Red Bull Racing is on 103.
Tomorrow’s front row is identical to that in today’s Sprint. Verstappen,
whose best lap was a 1’04”314, will again have McLaren’s Lando Norris
(1’04”718) alongside him, while on the second row one finds the Mercedes of
George Russell (1’04”840) and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz (1’04”851).
THE DAY ON TRACK
Predictably, the Medium proved to be the only choice for the Sprint Race,
given that the C3 was selected by all the drivers as the best compound for
the 24 lap race. The Sauber pair opted to run a new set, while all the
others went with a part worn set. The Medium behaved as expected, providing
the teams with plenty of useful data to help plan strategy for tomorrow’s
race.
For qualifying, obviously, everyone ran the Softs with a mix between new and
used sets, based on availability and how far they progressed through the
sessions. The C5 confirmed its excellent performance over a flying lap on
the Spielberg track, even with very high track temperatures.
The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Max Verstappen by Jason
Oppenheim. President and founder of the Oppenheim Group, Jason leads a team
that represents buyers and sellers of prime real estate throughout Southern
California and has become a star on Netflix as the star of the shows Selling
Sunset and Selling the OC, which garnered three Emmy Award nominations. |
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MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Yet another pole for Verstappen, who really seems unbeatable here,
especially over a single timed lap, given that this is the seventh
consecutive time he has been fastest in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.
Today’s high temperatures, with the track hovering around the 50 °C mark,
was an additional difficulty to deal with, but at least it gave teams the
chance to try the Medium tyre in these conditions, providing important
information regarding strategy. According to our calculations, two pit stops
will be required, with a mix of C3 and C4. Clearly, those who chose to use
extensively, and therefore give back a set of C3s, will favour the Medium
more, while the others will have a greater degree of flexibility. A one-stop
is not a realistic choice, not because of tyre wear, but in terms of
degradation and pace, although a three-stop could work if there is a Safety
Car in the second part of the race, or if degradation is higher than
expected. In this case, even the C5 could come into play, albeit not in a
major way.”
FORMULA 2
Oliver Bearman won the Sprint Race with an impeccable drive which saw him
fend off Josep María Martí (Campos Racing) to take his first win of the
season. The PREMA Racing driver took the lead off the line and kept it all
the way to the chequered flag. Martí had to settle for second, while Paul
Aron (Hitech Pulse-Eight) rounded off the podium trio.
On the tyre front, it was quite a straightforward race. Overheating made
itself felt right from the start and the drivers had to pay particular
attention to management, especially across the rear axle. Those who wanted,
or had to push hard in the opening stages then found themselves struggling a
bit towards the end, running the risk of being overtaken.
FORMULA 3
Nikola Tsolov (ART Grand Prix) won the Sprint Race after a three-way fight
with Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech Pulse-Eight) and team-mate Christian
Mansell. The Bulgarian pulled off an overtaking move in the closing stages
just before the Safety Car made its second and last appearance, then fending
off Stenshorne at the restart for the final lap to clinch his second win of
the year.
The two Safety Car periods, one early on and the aforementioned one towards
the end, reduced the race distance. Graining put in an appearance after six
or seven closely fought laps, on both the front and rear, which led to an
overall drop in pace. A further difficulty at this track, especially in a
field with as many cars as Formula 3, is tyre management when in traffic,
especially in the fastest corners and that proved to be the case today. |
