How Norris beat his own F1 Austrian GP pole lap by almost 0.3s

Lando Norris’ opening Q3 lap in setting the grid for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix was already good enough for pole.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, the Briton’s 1m04.268s could have done the job on its own; Charles Leclerc did not improve on his 1m04.492s set amid the opening runs, and Oscar Piastri had to abort the start of his second lap thanks to an ill-timed yellow flag.

On the short lap of the Red Bull Ring, pole margins are usually decided by hundredths, not tenths; that Norris managed to find 0.3s on his second run of Q3 was hence quite impressive.

Usually in these post-quali GPS analysis pieces, we’ll tend to dissect how one driver got pole over the other – and point out the little margins spotted in their data traces. In this case, however, the curiosity lies in just where Norris found such a (contextually speaking) large delta over his own time, so we’ll overlay his two Q3 laps to see how he did it.

Sector 1: A 0.061s gain in one corner

The opening sector of the Red Bull Ring comprises of Turn 1 and Turn 2 – which, by all accounts, isn’t a corner. It’s not too hard to dissect this one here: Norris (his faster lap in orange) brakes a fraction later for the opening corner. On his onboard camera, you can see a little movement at the wheel to settle the rear of the car and ensure that it can deliver the traction needed on the run up to Turn 3. 

Norris does top out a little bit on the run to the braking zone for Turn 3, which fractionally brings his delta down by about 0.01s, but there’s little he can do about that; one might surmise that wind may have played a small part here. This is genuinely down to a brief 1kph difference approaching the zenith of the circuit.

Nonetheless, the braver approach to Turn 1 netted Norris a 0.061s gain by the end of the opening sector. 

Sector 2: Better exit from Turn 3 yields another 0.2s

Lando Norris, McLaren

Norris’ approach to Turn 3 was the big gain here. In his original Q3 lap (white), he’d bled off the throttle sooner and braked a little bit later to make sure he didn’t wash out on the exit of the corner. But there was a slightly longer dwell time on the throttle, meaning that Norris did carry a smidgen more speed into it.

But this forced him to be more tentative on the throttle coming out of the corner, denoted by a tiny little step where he very slightly hesitated in depressing the accelerator to its full travel. By comparison, the throttle travel on his final lap of the session was much more decisive. Knowing that he had a strong banker to lean on, Norris could afford to take more liberties with his inputs – and that’s shown here.

He hangs on for full throttle longer, drops it and gets on the brake, and then is smoother with the throttle pedal on the exit to get up to full speed sooner. By the time he’s well clear of Turn 3, that approach has given Norris a 0.25s advantage on his previous best.

The outright speed does fall away a bit on the downhill run to Turn 4; perhaps Norris took an extra turn of front wing, which made the car a little draggier in a straight line, but it ensures he’s much more confident on turn-in. He doesn’t quite match his approach to Turn 4 on his second run, opting to brake sooner and for longer, but he’s just got that little bit more traction on the exit.

Through Turn 5, that extra traction has ensured that Norris keeps his 0.25s advantage over his previous best, and his much-later braking approach into Turn 6 adds a little more to his margin as he again loses a couple of hundredths on straightline performance. He’s on the throttle later as a result, but he’s able to do so without any confidence lift through the sweeping left-hander as he keeps within the kerbs. Taking his 0.061s advantage from S1, Norris gets another 0.205s in sector two.

Sector 3: Turn 10 conservatism stops potential 0.4s lap-time gain

Lando Norris, McLaren

Norris sacrifices his entry into Turn 7 a little bit; although he comes off the throttle later, he briefly comes all the way off the pedal before picking it up again at maximum travel sooner. This rewards him with an 8kph speed gain on the exit of the corner, offering more momentum through the Turn 8 kink.

As a result, he’s now 0.33s up on his previous lap – and the approaches to the breakneck Turns 9 and 10 look like they’ll offer even more. He brakes later for Turn 9, but keeps a little bit of throttle on before he comes off the brake to ensure he carries the speed through the corner.

On the entry to Turn 10, he’s 0.4s up, but there’s some hesitance on the throttle pick-up out of the corner; Norris perhaps knows he’s playing fast and loose with the gravel on the corner exit and wants to give himself a bit of a wider berth. Thus, he brings the throttle up to about 80%, but just holds it there for a time to ensure he’s clear of the kerbing before giving it the final bit of welly. That costs about a tenth on his delta; although he crossed the line with a 0.297s advantage over his previous best, he was tracking at around 0.427s before that little hesitance.

But perhaps that lift was the difference between getting the lap in and doing a Pierre Gasly-esque slide at the final corner. Sometimes it’s better to bank the lap by taking a little bit of margin at the final corner.

Leclerc vs Norris

Lando Norris, McLaren

Most of Leclerc’s 0.5s deficit came in the final two sectors, as the two drivers were separated by just about 0.08s by the end of sector one. Leclerc’s big delta peak at Turn 3 shows that he took a different line to arc the corner a bit more. You can see that this delta normalises by the time he gets to the Turn 4 braking zone, albeit 0.2s down on Norris.

Norris then takes a different approach to add to his advantage in Turns 6 and 7; he’s fully off throttle more than Leclerc, but uses less braking at Turn 6 and none at all in Turn 7. Thus, he’s got the grip to wind the throttle back on sooner, preserving the through-corner advantage. Leclerc is 0.6s behind by Turn 10, but the arrears fall when Norris is more hesitant on the throttle out of the final corner.