Stromsted ready for tricky balancing act and fight for Pole after fast start in Spielberg

It was a great start to Round 4 for TRIDENT and Noah Stromsted, with the Dane setting a scorching pace in the Spielberg Free Practice.

His 1:22.410 put him top of the pile and heading into Qualifying, he feels it's a much stronger position than he and the team have found themselves in recent rounds.

"I think it's a big step compared to Barcelona last weekend. We worked quite hard to figure out the issues we had there and it's very nice to start out strong here in Austria," he explained.

"We drove here one month ago, so it didn't take too long to get into the rhythm around this track, but the temperatures are very different, so the car behaves a bit differently. But I think we did a good job before we started."

Between F3 Practice and Qualifying, Formula 2 and Formula 1 will be on track around the Red Bull Ring, meaning grip levels will be vastly different to what drivers experienced in the morning session.

Add the increasing heat of the European heatwave and Qualifying is expected to be a very difficult session around a deceptively demanding circuit.

Stromsted says that keeping tyres under control will be the key difference maker, but slipstream will also be a requirement with the long straights that make up the majority of the first two sectors.

"The temperature and the grip will rise a lot with F1 driving as well before Qualifying, so it will be quite different today.

"The overheating that will happen in the last section, especially with the two high-speed corners, will be a big challenge.

"I also think it's quite clear at this track from the last couple of years that slipstream is quite mandatory around here, a bit like in Monza, so I think it will be a bit of a messy session. But I'm feeling confident going into it."

For Stromsted, he is hoping to dial it in once again and secure a first pole position of the season for TRIDENT. It would also break the grip Campos Racing's Théophile Nael has had on P1 on Fridays so far this season, and be a big confidence boost heading into the remainder of the year.

"This is a very important weekend for us to get back and to score some points and show where we should be, because the start of the season has been quite bad.

"In the races it's been good having experience, especially with tyre management, but we've just been struggling a bit with the pace in Qualifying, so quite different this year."

"At the moment I feel confident, but everything changes quite a lot, so we just have to keep finding the performance in the car."