Last year's resurfacing of the Red Bull Ring helped to produce quicker laptimes, although rain compromised Q3.

However, in Q2 Lewis Hamilton set the fastest official qualifying lap ever achieved at the venue, a 1m06.228s, beating the record set by Michael Schumacher in 2003.

It was also the lowest qualifying laptime set anywhere since the 1990 French GP, when Nigel Mansell was fastest for Ferrari at the short version of Paul Ricard.

If this weekend's pole is quicker than Mansell's mark of 1m04.402s, it will be the lowest qualifying laptime since 1985, when the same driver took pole at Kyalami with the Williams-Honda.

To achieve that pole at the Red Bull Ring will have to be some 1.827s quicker than Hamilton's 2016 Q2 lap.

With the changes to the regulations in 2017 pole times have been faster at every venue this year, with the year-on-year improvement ranging from 0.724s in Bahrain to 3.724s in China. The average gain over the eight races held thus far has been 2.106s.

While the short lap in Austria means that the proportional improvement may be smaller, it's worth noting that Hamilton's 2016 Q2 time did not represent the ultimate pace of his car, which he was not able to demonstrate due to the rain before Q3.

The all-time list is dominated by laptimes recorded at Dijon, which was extended after the original 2.0-mile track was first used for the 1974 French GP, but still had a very short 2.3-mile lap even in its new guise.

The original Watkins Glen was also a short 2.3-mile lap until it was lengthened in 1971.

Kyalami would have figured higher on the all-time list had turbo F1 cars raced there in 1986-87, so its fastest lap remains the one achieved by Mansell in 1985.

The following table shows where Austria's 2017 pole lap could fit into the all-time list: