ANALYSIS: Leclerc went for a four-stop strategy after early disaster
Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix saw the majority of drivers elect to complete the 71-lap race with a two-stop strategy, but a damage sustained on the opening lap saw Charles Leclerc perform a four-stop strategy at Spielberg.
The Austrian Grand Prix produced a surprising climax, with George Russell emerging victorious after a prolonged duel between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris ended with both of them pitting with a damaged tyre.
While Red Bull’s Dutch driver managed to get going again and finish fifth, McLaren’s Englishman had to retire. Russell thus ended a winless streak for both himself and Mercedes which lasted for 34 Grands Prix and 595 days, dating back to Brazil in 2022.
Commenting on the 71-lap Austrian Grand Prix, Pirelli's Motorsport Director, Mario Isola said: "When you least expect it, the sparks fly! The first two thirds of the race were generally linear, it only took a small problem at Verstappen’s second pit stop to bring together on track the two outstanding drivers of this weekend, thus triggering a thrilling on-the-limit duel.
"It produced a very exciting finale which, in the end, worked out to the benefit of George Russell, who was thus able to secure his second ever Grand Prix win: congratulations to him and to Mercedes! Overall, there was actually a lot of overtaking in this race, some of it very spectacular," he noted.
As expected, the most effective strategy was a two-stop: those who did three or more – Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso and Sargeant – did so for unforeseen circumstances, not by choice.
All the drivers lined up on the grid on Medium tyres while, starting from pit lane, Zhou went with the Hard. The C4 and the C3 were the undoubted protagonists of this race, with the C5 only putting in an appearance at the end, used by Verstappen for the last seven laps after his enforced stop and by Alonso, who was trying for the race fastest lap, which he did indeed set.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Williams' Logan Sargeant were the only drivers to complete the race distance with a four-stop strategy.
The Monegasque was squeezed by Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez when the field headed into Turn 1 on the opening lap, and picked up damage to his front wing. He was forced to pit to receive a new front wing, and changed his mediums to hards.
On Lap 16, he pitted again for new a set of new mediums and he came into the pit lane on two further occasions. He received a set of used mediums both on Lap 33 and 51.
As for the different compounds, Daniel Ricciardo complete the longest stint on the C3 compounds with a 34-lap run. It was George Russell to set the quickest lap on the white-walled compound with a time of 1m09.164s.
On the medium, it was Alpine racer Pierre Gasly to record the longest stint (29 laps). The quickest lap was set by McLaren's Lando Norris, who recorded a 1m08.016s on the yellow-banded tyres.
Fernando Alonso completed the best lap time on the C5 compounds with a 1m07.694s which was enough for the Spaniard to claim the DHL Fastest Lap Award. However, he did not earn the additional point for the fastest race lap as he ended the race outside the top ten. The longest stint on the C5 was completed by Max Verstappen, who elected to take the red-walled tyres during his unplanned third stop.
"From our side there were no surprises. The tyres behaved exactly as expected, both when compared to the simulations carried out before arriving in Austria and based on the analysis of the data gathered on Friday and yesterday.
"The strategy predictions were also pretty much respected. Medium and Hard were the main choices for the race. The Medium probably performed a touch better, especially on the more competitive cars. Although they had two sets of Hards available, the Red Bull pair chose the C4 for the third stint, for this precise reason and also to be in the same situation as the competitors they were fighting with in this phase of the race.
"On the other hand, the C3, which suffered slightly less from degradation, worked well for those who opted to run a very short first stint on the Medium before then exploiting the greater consistency of the white-banded tyres, thus managing to get into the points, as did the Haas pair of Hulkenberg and Magnussen, as well as Ricciardo (Racing Bulls)," the Italian noted.
