São Paulo GP: Norris survives dramatic qualifying to claim pole
McLaren's Lando Norris got the best possible outcome from a fraught wet qualifying session in São Paulo that saw five crashes and some big names missing the cut at crucial moments.
Norris' final round time of 1:23.405s put him almost two tenths ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell who will join him on the front row of the grid for this afternoon's race.
Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Liam Lawson will start in the top five, but neither Red Bull made it into Q3 and Lewis Hamilton missed the first cut at the end of Q1, while Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was one of five drivers to crash.
Heavy rain on Saturday afternoon meant that qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix had been rolled over to Sunday, but conditions remained wet. By first light the rain had weakened to a drizzle but heavier precipitation was looking imminent as the session got underway at 7.30am local time.
Q1: Verstappen masters the rain as Hamilton misses the first cut
Saturday sprint race winner Lando Norris was one of the first drivers to head out, setting a time of 1:31.608s to lead Williams' Alex Albon by almost a second. There were yellow flags for Liam Lawson and Zhou Guanyu locking up and going down escape roads, and Lance Stroll also bounced across the grass but was able to continue.
A rapidly changing order saw Alpine's Esteban Ocon briefly top ahead of Fernando Alonso followed by RB's Yuki Tsunoda and both Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Tsunoda had just gone top with a time of 1:29.172s which was 0.667s quicker than the latest from Charles Leclerc when the red flags were out for a sizeable crash for Williams rookie Franco Colapinto at turn 3.
There were just under nine minutes remaining with Albon, Zhou, George Russell, Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton all in the drop zone and the rain starting to pick up again. Despite the conditions cars were soon finding extra time once the session resumed Albon moving into seventh and Hamilton marginally improving to P14, but Russell went wide at the first corner.
Verstappen inserted the Red Bull into fifth only to have his time deleted due to double yellow flags from Nico Hulkenberg skating wide. However he went on to set the quickest time of 1:28.522s ahead of Albon, while Russell finally found the Mercedes' sweet spot to go P3. That had the unfortunate unintended consequence of pushing Hamilton into the drop zone: "The car is undriveable", Hamilton radioed.
Norris was also scrambling to make the cut, pushed down to 15th by the latest improvement from Lawson. He just scraped through, leaving Hamilton in P16 and out along with Oliver Bearman, Colapinto, Hulkenberg and Zhou.
Q2: Norris back on top, Sainz and Stroll crash as Verstappen and Perez miss the cut
The remaining 15 drivers were soon back out for the second round. Piastri risked a run on the intermediates in the expectation of the conditions drying up over the next 15 minutes, while the others started on full wets.
Leclerc took the initial honours ahead of Russell and Sainz but these were just the opening salvos in a battle for survival. Perez was soon on top from Alonso, Bottas and Stroll, then it was Verstappen with a time of 1:27.771s and Perez four tenths behind who took charge. Fourth place for Piastri rang the bell for a general switch to inters, Russell finding them a handful and going for a spin on his out lap.
Piastri set a new top time of 1:25.179s, and Russell regrouped to go second albeit more than a second slower followed by Stroll, Verstappen, Lawson and Perez. However the red flags were out again almost at once for Sainz going into the barrier at turn 2.
Norris, Gasly, Albon, Tsunoda and Ocon were languishing in the drop zone with six minutes to go. Once the track was cleaned up, the session resumed with Norris leading the charge. As the track conditions improved, the times rapidly tumbled: Alonso went top but was deposed by Norris' time of 1:24.844s. Piastri was third from Lawson and Albon, while Leclerc survived in sixth from Ocon and Russell.
Stroll was ninth fastest but triggered another red flag when he went into the barriers, leaving Tsunoda scraping through in tenth. Missing out were Bottas, Gasly - and shockingly, both Red Bulls who had got caught out by the late red flag which left Verstappen P12 and Perez 13th, with big championship implications.
Q3: Norris clinches pole from Russell after crashes for Alonso and Albon
With Stroll out of the running, just nine cars were left in the running, all still on inters despite the drizzle picking up again. "If it keeps raining like this we should just stay out," was Piastri's view from the cockpit as he exited pit lane.
Norris and Piastri were initially quickest. Tsunoda went quicker before being pipped by Albon, after which Norris reclaimed the top spot just before another red flag when Alonso found the wall. With seven minutes remaining, Russell was first to go back out but fell victim to a lack of grip. Piastri also had a spin while Tsunoda ended up taking to the escape road at turn 4 and Leclerc had a scare in the Ferrari.
Inevitably there was another red flag, this time for a huge high speed hit for Albon who had locked up into turn 1. There were still three and a half minutes left on the clock when the session resumed and Norris timed his final run perfectly to take pole with a time of 1:23.405s, 0.173 quicker than Russell's riposte. Tsunoda took a fine third ahead of a combative Ocon, with Lawson fifth ahead of Leclerc.
Albon's existing time had been enough to hold on to P7, but he it's almost certain that he won't start the race due to the extensive car damage he incurred. A mistake from Piastri at the start of his final lap left the McLaren eighth ahead of the crumpled brace of Astons.
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