SAO PAULO GP – Lando Norris takes pole in a wild and wet qualifying as Max Verstappen knocked out in Q2
Lando Norris has beaten George Russell in a wet and wild qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the McLaren driver kept his car on track to set a 23.405 at the end of Q3 in a session when the rain eased off. Norris championship hopes have also been given a huge boost after rival Max Verstappen was knocked out in twelfth and with his five-place grid penalty will not start higher than seventeenth.
This could have huge implications for the championship with four Grands Prix remaining and unpredictability set to continue for the Grand Prix in a few hours. McLaren have looked quick all weekend and that continued amidst the wet conditions this morning and could give the Englishman a huge haul of points going into the two-week break before the final triple header.
Demonstrating how volatile conditions are today for the race, Norris was almost knocked out in Q1 when he just scraped out of the drop zone in fifteenth. Norris took full advantage after two more red flags in Q3 for Alonso and Stroll’s crashes to take his seventh pole of the season and has a big opportunity to eat into Verstappen’s championship lead.
Following the postponement of the session from Saturday, there were numerous dramas during Sunday morning’s qualifying right until the final Q3 segment, in which two heavy crashes for Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon disrupted running.
An impressive lap by Yuki Tsunoda at the end of Q3 put the RB driver third but over six and a half tenths behind Russell who stole second in the closing moments of the nearly two-hour-long session which started just after dawn at 07:30 local time, and was interrupted by five red flags running well past 09:00. Drivers who found the wall were both Williams, both Aston Martins and Carlos Sainz.
Norris said: “There was a lot going on. I was struggling a lot at the start of the session, I worked on it a lot in the session. A little surprised to be on pole but a good result for us.”
Esteban Ocon put his Alpine fourth between the two RBs the Frenchman three and a half tenths behind Tsunoda as he went ahead of Charles Leclerc. Alex Albon put his Williams seventh, but could miss the race after wrecking his car on his final attempt when he lost the rear at the entry to the Senna S (Turn One), after clambering out of his written-off car he was holding his wrist.
Albon was four hundredths ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri as the two wrecked Aston Martin’s completing the top ten. Stroll’s crash right at the end of Q2 saw a brief delay before the red flag allowed a few drivers to complete a lap, but Verstappen was fuming as he wasn’t one of them. that left the Dutchman twelfth three-tenths behind Valtteri Bottas.
Verstappen failed to improve on his final attempt going four tenths ahead of teammate Sergio Perez as they both were shuffled out before Stroll’s crash when track conditions were best. Despite the Dutchman complaining that the timing of the red flag was too long, it was still likely that he would have still been knocked out of qualifying. Carlos Sainz caused the first red flag in Q2.
Leclerc crossed the line to bump Verstappen out, just two seconds later – well within the normal margin for a yellow flag to become a red after a heavy crash. Pierre Gasly was slowest in Q2 going two-tenths behind Sainz.
Verstappen said,. “The car goes into the wall, broken. It’s clearly destroyed, but they wait 30-40 seconds and the others can complete their lap times and of course the ones behind cannot.
Lewis Hamilton found himself knocked out in Q1 for the second sprint weekend in a row, the seven time champion being knocked out by Norris on his final attempt. Norris having his time deleted towards the end of Q1 before his final attempt just got him through to Q2 before going onto pole. Hamilton was eight hundredths faster than Ollie Bearman.
Franco Colapinto starts his defacto home race from eighteenth, the Argentine first to find the barriers when he crashed half way through Q1. Replays show that Colapinto got a slight slide on at the exit of Senna (Turn Two) and then was caught out by a moment of wheelspin at Curva do Sol (Turn Three) which sent him on a one-way trip to the barriers.
Nico Hulkenberg was nineteenth ahead of Guanyu Zhou.
This afternoon race could yet and will provide yet more drama as Interlagos is always difficult as qualifying proved accidents, safety cars and red flags in these conditions are certain to happen.
Related
- SAO PAULO GP – Grand Prix qualifying postponed until Sunday morning
- Sao Paulo GP – Sprint Result
- SAO PAULO GP – Lando Norris wins the sprint race six tenths ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri following team orders
- Sao Paulo GP – Sprint Qualifying
- SAO PAULO GP – Oscar Piastri beats Lando Norris to sprint pole by three hundredths with Max Verstappen fourth
- SAO PAULO GP – Lando Norris fastest by nearly two-tenths ahead of George Russell in practice
- Welcome to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix
- PRIXVIEW – Sao Paulo Grand Prix