One stop strategy might be seven seconds slower than a two-stop approach, estimates Pirelli

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Ahead of today's Austrian Grand Prix, Pirelli expects the two-stop strategy to emerge as the quickest way to complete the Spielberg race, suggesting that it might be seven seconds faster than the one-stop approach.

Despite his collision with his team-mate at the Canadian Grand Prix, Lando Norris has looked to be in top form so far at this weekend's Spielberg round.

The Briton sat out the opening session as he handed over his MCL39 to F2 driver Alexander Dunne, but he set the pace both in FP2 and FP3. The McLaren driver then put his disappointment from Canada firmly behind him, dominating the nail-biting qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring to charge his way to a comfortable pole.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri never looked strong enough to challenge Norris for pole, and yellow flags brought out for a spin from Alpine's Pierre Gasly made things even worse. The championship leader ultimately ended up third on the grid behind his team-mate and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

As for the results, the gap to second place was the biggest we have seen all season, both in terms of actual time (0.521s) 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 qualifying results, at least for the first two rows, are identical to those of the recent Monaco Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc's Ferrari is in second place (1m04.492s), while third and fourth places are occupied by his teammates, with Oscar Piastri (1m04.554s) ahead of Lewis Hamilton (1m04.582s). However, at Monte Carlo, Hamilton was handed a three-place grid drop penalty for impeding Max Verstappen.

As for the tyres, 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.

Reflecting on the qualifying session, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola stated: “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, Pirelli estimated that a two-stop approach is the quickest choice, suggesting that the best way to complete the Austrian Grand Prix is to start on the medium tyres before switching for the hard rubber.

"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.”