McLaren’s Lando Norris snatched pole position for 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix in a wet Qualifying epic.
Norris survived an almighty Q1 scare and five red flags in a wild chaotic wet session to put himself on pole, which boosted his title ambitions due to the mixed luck for those around him in the driver standings.
Norris’ title rival, Max Verstappen suffered a Q2 elimination as he only qualified 12th but will start 17th due to a five-place grid penalty for a power unit change.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton meanwhile was a shock Q1 casualty amidst the chaos.
Q1
Amidst light rainfall, Williams’ Alex Albon was first on track but Liam Lawson, Guanyu Zhou and Lance Stroll got wide at turn 12 yet avoided the barriers.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon meanwhile set the early pace of 1m 30.096 which he soon lowered by 0.180 seconds, until Yuki Tsunoda posted 1m 29.172 to set the pace.
Williams’ Franco Colapinto though caused a red flag with eight minutes and 50s on the clock, which left Albon, Zhou, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in the drop zone when the session resumed after a seven-minute delay.
Bottas however was the only driver to gamble on intermediate tyres before the red flag, during which the rain intensity increased.
As the checkered flag, Zhou qualified slowest and was joined on the back row by Nico Hulkenberg, whilst Colapinto found himself 18th behind Bearman and Hamilton who were too eliminated.
Verstappen meanwhile posted 1m 28.522 to top the session from Albon by 0.550s.
Q2
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were first out on track as the rain intensity reduced, whilst McLaren’s Oscar Piastri gambled on intermediates.
The Aussie’s gamble paid off on his second flier as he posted 1m 27.141 to go top from Verstappen by 0.630s, which led everyone else to quickly pit for a change to intermediate tyres.
Amidst the flurry of tyre changes, Piastri lowered his benchmark time to 1m 25.179 whilst the bottom five comprised of; Gasly, Lawson, Albon, Tsunoda and Ocon.
Red flags were out with five minutes and 51s left on the clock after Sainz slid into the barriers, albeit after Lawson improved to fifth and dropped Norris into the drop zone in 11th and yet to set a time on the intermediates.
The session resumed after a seven-minute delay with Norris first out on track and he proceeded to put himself up to fourth then top with 1m 24.844 on his second flier.
Q2 eventually ended with 46s left after Stroll crashed on the exit of the Senna S which eliminated Bottas, Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Sainz and Gasly.
Q3
With the threat of rain intensity increasing, Ocon led a queue of cars out onto the circuit and set 1m 26.267 but Piastri went quickest only for Norris to post 1m 25.631 to go top from Russell by 0.054s.
Ocon and Piastri responded to go quickest until Albon popped up with 1m 24.657 to go fastest, only for Norris to produce 1m 24.158 to put himself top from the British-Thai driver.
Red flags however were out with six minutes and 59s left after Alonso spun out at turn 4, which left him ninth alongside teammate, Stroll in tenth after the Canadian didn’t set a lap time in Q3 due to his Q2-ending incident.
Following a 12-minute delay, Q3 resumed with Russell first out on track but he aborted his first flier after he ran wide at Senna S.
Albon however didn’t escape the same fate as he lost control of his Williams under braking upon entry and slammed into the barriers, which in-turn destroyed the rear of his car.
Stewards consequently brought the red flags out for the fifth time with three minutes and 31s on the clock, which recommenced 10 minutes after the stoppage with Ocon first out for his final run as light rain began to fall once more.
At the checkered flag, Norris claimed pole with 1m 23.405 and is joined on the front row by Russell, whilst Tsunoda, Ocon, Lawson, Leclerc, Albon and Piastri completed the top eight.
Teams now face a frantic race against time to prepare for the race at 12:30pm local time (3:30pm GMT).
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 23.405 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.173 |
| 3 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 0.706 |
| 4 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.070 |
| 5 | Liam Lawson | RB | + 1.079 |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 1.120 |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.252 |
| 8 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 1.281 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 5.593 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | No Time |
| 11 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 1m 26.472 |
| 12 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 1.299 |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.686 |
| 14 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 2.934 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 3.142 |
| 16 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 31.150 |
| 17 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 0.079 |
| 18 | Franco Colapinto | Williams | + 0.120 |
| 19 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.473 |
| 20 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 1.113 |
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