The intrigue at the heart of the Austrian GP

There is one interesting difference between Red Bull and the other major contenders for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix. 

Max Verstappen starts on pole position, with Lando Norris leading the chasing pack behind with George Russell in third - hoping for a repeat to his blistering Spanish GP start from last week. 

There is one major difference between how Red Bull will run the race compared to McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. 

Both Verstappen and Sergio Perez have two brand-new sets of the hard tyres available, having not run the compound at all throughout the sprint weekend, opting for the C4 mediums and C5 softs. 

In contrast, Norris, Russell, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri all will be running a different strategy with two new sets of the mediums available. 

For these drivers, Pirelli's prediction is to start on the mediums and run until laps 18-24 before swapping to their hard tyre for the middle stint between laps 45-52. 

The final stint will then be on mediums again until the flag on lap 71. 

For Verstappen and Perez, medium-hard-hard is their strategy, pitting between laps 16-21 to trade the mediums for one new set of hards, and pitting earlier again between laps 42-48 to take on the second set.

Should there be a late safety car, Pirelli also feels drivers could swap to a set of soft tyres, although with the high air and track temperatures expected, coupled with the heavy traction zones, it is not a good race tyre. 

You can review Pirelli's strategy predictions below - along with the remaining tyre sets per driver.