McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed pole position in a dramatic qualifying session for 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris followed up his sprint win with a dominant Qualifying performance to take his second pole position at Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli joining him on the front row.
Qualifying however threw up plenty of drama as Red Bull suffered a double Q1 exit with Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, whilst Lewis Hamilton again missed out on Q3 after his disappointing Sprint Qualifying result.
Q1
Williams’ Alex Albon and Carlos were on track for a heat cycle which left Haas’ Oliver Bearman to set 1m 10.664 as the initial benchmark, but Mercedes’ Antonelli set the pace on 1m 10.192 once everyone set a lap time.
Bearman responded with 1m 09.891 just seconds later to go quickest whilst the bottom five comprised of; Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Oscar Piastri, Franco Colapinto and Gabriel Bortoleto, with the latter not involved after his crash on the final lap of the sprint.
Everyone opted for a mid-session run which left Max Verstappen sat in the bottom five alongside Colapinto, Esteban Ocon Tsunoda and Bortoleto.
As the checkered flag fell, none of the bottom five escaped the drop as Verstappen only qualified 16th ahead of; Ocon, Colapinto, Tsunoda and Bortoleto.
Norris topped the segment with 1m 09.656 on his final flier.
Q2
Albon and Sainz again were first out on track and Albon set 1m 10.351 as the benchmark time but Bearman soon set the pace with 1m 09.755 ahead of Antonelli by 0.019s.
The bottom five upon completion of the first fliers comprised of; Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Sainz.
At the checkered flag, Gasly, Leclerc and Hulkenberg survived elimination at the expense of Fernando Alonso, Albon and Lewis Hamilton who qualified 11th, 12th and 13th respectively ahead of Stroll and Sainz.
Like in Q1, Norris left it until the final minute to set the quickest lap time of the segment as he posted 1m 09.616 to improve on his Q1 time by 0.040 seconds.
Q3
Bearman was first out on track for the final segment and set 1m 09.977 as the initial benchmark time but once everyone set their first lap times, Piastri set the pace with 1m 09.897 and just 0.002s clear of Leclerc with Bearman sat third with a 0.080s gap to the Aussie.
Antonelli, George Russell, Liam Lawson, Isack Hadjar and Hulkenberg rounded out the top nine ahead of Norris who locked up in the first corner, which left the Brit 0.651s behind his teammate.
In the final round of fliers, Norris bounced back with 1m 09.511 to take pole for the second consecutive season around Sao Paulo, as Antonelli qualified second behind the Brit like he did in Sprint Qualifying.
Leclerc, Piastri, Hadjar, Russell, Lawson, Bearman, Gasly and Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 09.511 |
| 2 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.174 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.294 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.375 |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.420 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.431 |
| 7 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.451 |
| 8 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 0.466 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.491 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.528 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1m 10.001 |
| 12 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.052 |
| 13 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.099 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.160 |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.471 |
| 16 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 10.403 |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 0.035 |
| 18 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 0.229 |
| 19 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 0.308 |
| DNQ | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | No Time |
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