Another pole for Verstappen at the Red Bull Ring

Spielberg, 28 June 2024 | 19:36 Europe/Amsterdam Another pole for Verstappen at the Red Bull Ring Featured-Practice-AT24 Conditions-Friday-AT24-EN Another Sprint Qualifying pole position for Max Verstappen, his eighth from the 15 times this format has been used. It’s also his sixth consecutive success in a pole position shoot-out at the Red Bull Ring: 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, 2021 and 2023, Austrian Grand Prix and Sprint Qualifying here for the past two years. The Red Bull Racing driver was quickest in all three sections of qualifying, with 1’04”686 his best time in Q3. Joining him at the top end of the time sheet were the two McLaren drivers, with Lando Norris second in 1’04”779 and Oscar Piastri third in 1’04”987. This trio were the only ones to get under the 1’05” barrier. THE DAY ON TRACKThe Sprint weekend format means that the only free practice session is particularly important to prepare the cars for the flying lap discipline, as well as evaluating tyre behaviour over a long run and today was no exception. During FP1, temperatures rose considerably, as the clouds gradually made way for the rays of the sun, the track going from 31 to 45 °C.All drivers, with the exception of Lewis Hamilton who only used one set of Hards throughout, used two different compounds (not counting Aston Martin, who used one set of Medium and one of Hard, simply to bed them in): Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin and Alpine ran with Hard and Soft; Red Bull, Williams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Haas with Medium and Soft.Max Verstappen was presented with the Pirelli Sprint Qualifying Award by Verena Culka, a lucky fan chosen by the Austrian Grand Prix promoter to enjoy this exclusive experience. Handmade in Italy, the trophy consists of a square of FSC™ certified natural rubber, enclosed between two pieces of glass on which is etched the layout of the Red Bull Ring and the FSC™ logo, a stylised tree. The same rubber is part of the raw materials used in the manufacture of all the Pirelli P Zero Formula 1 tyres, complying with the environmental and social sustainability criteria defined by the forestry management non-governmental organisation. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, receives his Sprint Qualifying award from superfan Verana Culka SIMONE BERRA – CHIEF ENGINEER“All in all, it was a fairly normal Friday for a Sprint weekend, with the teams in free practice doing several runs with relatively different programmes in terms of stint length and fuel loads. From our side, there were no particular surprises with how the three compounds we chose for this Grand Prix behaved. As expected, there seems to be no graining, but overheating is a major factor. Sprint Qualifying provides an opportunity to compare the performance of the Medium and the Soft in very similar conditions over a flying lap and the difference we saw today, of around four tenths, is also in line with our expectations. The most relevant data is linked to the extensive use of the Hard, by half the teams, which leads us to believe that that their preferred strategy should be to run Medium-Hard-Medium, given that a two-stop is the quickest choice. However, the other five teams have left the door open to run two sets of Hard or two sets of Medium. It’s worth noting that today’s times are generally a few tenths slower than last year’s qualifying held on Friday afternoon is similar weather conditions to today’s. Tomorrow, track temperature should be around 40 °C or higher and the Medium should be the preferred choice for all drivers, which will produce useful information for Sunday’s race.” 11-AT24-Practice3-EN FORMULA 2Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport took his second pole position of the season after a close battle with Joshua Duerksen (AIX Racing) in a hotly contested qualifying session. The Norwegian set a best time of 1’15”487 beating Duerksen by just eight thousandths of a second, while Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta Racing) rounded off the top three, with a lap time one tenth slower than pole. As in past years, Pirelli has chosen the P Zero Red soft and P Zero Purple supersoft for this event. The short Red Bull Ring features ten corners, most of them medium to low speed. The track has not been resurfaced for several years and although it is therefore quite abrasive, it doesn’t have much of an impact on wear and tyre behaviour, which is mainly affected by thermal degradation.FORMULA 3Luke Browning took his maiden Formula 3 pole position. Hitech Pulse-Eight’s English driver set a best time of 1’20”222, without resorting to slipstreaming, given that he was leading the pack on his quick lap. Browning’s time was 84 thousandths quicker than that set by fellow countryman Arvid Lindblad (Prema Racing) and 105 thousandths faster than Germany’s Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport). Pirelli has selected the P Zero Red soft as the compound for Spielberg, mainly because the forces exerted on the tyres at the short Austrian track