Lando Norris has beaten George Russell by two tenths to secure his third back-to-back pole for the São Paulo Grand Prix; the McLaren driver set a 27.470 following a wet and wild qualifying. The outgoing champion set his fastest time just before conditions changed at the end of Q3 to secure his fourth pole of the season.
Norris has looked quick all weekend and put in a lap similar to the one which secured him pole last year and his first front row since Madrid in September. A last swansong of his time as champion as he has not been far off during all three practice sessions, where he proved that the team’s upgrades were working, which was the team’s aim in pushing development late into 2026
Russell outqualified his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli by four tenths, but the new world champion will start alongside the outgoing champion as Russell has a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted number of engine parts. But Russell was told to abort his final faster lap, leaving him fuming.
the Mercedes was left frustrated not to top qualifying after being advised to back out on what he felt would have been a quicker lap than Norris’ when he came behind Williams’ Alex Albon. That meant he missed the window in Q3 before the rain intensified and brought the session effectively to an early conclusion.
Norris said: “It’s been a long day, a great qualifying. It was about getting two laps in at the beginning and not making mistakes and that’s what we did. Different conditions to last year but I am very happy, it’s not easy conditions out there, especially when you know it is going to rain a lot more.”
Russell was still rueing the decision not to complete his final lap, saying: “Congrats to Lando. That was definitely the pole lap. The rain was coming and we should have just finished the lap. Felt more confident in the wet than we did in the dry.”
Luck again was not on Russell’s side, his engineer, Marcus Dudley, clearly hoped this would pay off by giving Russell a clearer run on his next lap, but the call coincided with rain increasing again, meaning lap times soon became slower. Drivers swiftly headed back to the pit lane to mark an effective end to the Q3 battle as they all stayed in the garage as the clock ticked down to zero.
Russell felt he would have had pole had he continued on behind Albon, saying on team radio after the session: “I don’t want to be P2. I want to be P1!”
Russell added, “Obviously congrats to Lando [Norris] but that was definitely the pole lap. Misjudgement on our side, we need to understand what happened. And yeah, the rain was coming and we should’ve just finished the lap.”
Antonelli, who qualified in third but will start the race in second, added “It was very tricky. To be fair, I didn’t really know what to expect. Obviously, never drove here in the wet, so I didn’t know what was coming. I struggled a little bit on the inters, to be fair, and did a big mistake, almost went off in Turn Five. But it still was enough for P3, so happy with that and now we’ll focus on tomorrow.”
Qualifying started on time at 15:00 local time (18:00 GMT) but was stopped before anyone could set a lap because the conditions were too dangerous to continue. It restarted eighty-six minutes later and finally reached its conclusion around two and a half hours after it started.
Bearman said: “Definitely the wettest conditions I’ve experienced in a race car, if not any car, and that’s saying a lot given I grew up in the UK.”
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari fourth but was almost two tenths behind Russell, but the Monegasque also has an engine penalty, dropping him to fourteenth. Leclerc was three hundredths faster than Liam Lawson, who took advantage of the changeable conditions to finish four hundredths behind the Ferrari.
Audi went into qualifying with a chance of Q3; Nico Hulkenberg, who took pole in similar conditions at Interlagos in 2010, was three hundredths behind Lawson. They have proved competitive all weekend; however, teammate Gabriel Bortoleto and Rafael Camara both crashed out in Q1 and Q2 respectively, ahead of their home Grand Prix.
Hulkenberg was just under a tenth faster than Isack Hadjar, with Ollie Bearman seven hundredths further behind. Wet and changeable conditions often act as a performance leveller, and that creates opportunity, with Fernando Alonso ninth, four and a half hundredths faster than Alex Albon.
For the first time this season Aston Martin and Williams have made it through to Q3, Alonso another to use his decades of experience in mixed conditions to making it a highlight of a difficult 2026.
Lewis Hamilton was fastest of those knocked out in Q2, but the seven-time champion only needed to out-qualify Max Verstappen; both are starting near the back when various penalties are applied. The 2021 title rivals both have back-of-the-grid penalties for power unit changes, with Verstappen ahead of Hamilton, with the seven-time champion having a complete change.
Hamilton was over three and a half tenths ahead of Oscar Piastri. Rafael Camara put in a brilliant job on his debut weekend; despite the tricky conditions at his home Grand Prix, he put his Haas a tenth and a half behind Piastri. The Brazilian survived contact with the wall at the Curva do Sol, only damaging his front wing and brought Q2 to an early end.
Camara has replaced Esteban Ocon, who won’t drive for the rest of the season, this weekend, and that was a stunning effort to get into Q2, given it’s his debut weekend in tricky conditions, avoiding a major mistake. He was over a tenth and a half faster than Arvid Lindblad, with Carlos Sainz nearly a tenth further behind. Verstappen meanwhile opted not to play a further part in qualifying thanks to his penalty.
Wet weather can make or break your qualifying; for Alpine it was the latter. Both Franco Colapinto missed out by eight hundredths as he went over a tenth faster than Pierre Gasly, with Lance Stroll two tenths further behind.
Valtteri Bottas was six and a quarter tenths faster than Sergio Perez with Bortoleto completing the field.
