Sao Paulo GP Qualifying: Max Verstappen beats the weather to claim Brazil pole as fast McLaren lose out

Max Verstappen beat the arrival on an extraordinary Interlagos storm to see off what had been a fierce qualifying challenge from his rivals to secure pole position for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Having appeared set to face a major fight for pole from McLaren’s Lando Norris, who topped Q2, in particular, Red Bull crucially got their man out early as ominously dark clouds gathered over the circuit for the start of Q3 and Verstappen delivered on what turned out to be the one flying lap in the final session to secure an 11th pole position of his season.

For Norris and McLaren, it was sharp disappointment, as the Briton’s pacesetting form from the second phase turned in to just seventh on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix.

Team-mate Oscar Piastri spun into the grass at the penultimate corner as the rain fell and he qualified 10th.

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Oscar Piastri spins off as the rain starts to fall during the final qualifying session of the Sao Paulo GP

“The car was amazing,” admitted a disappointed Norris. “Easily probably quick enough to be quickest today and on pole. So pretty gutted for that to end the way we did.”

In strange scenes at what was only just after 4pm local time, Interlagos almost descended into total night-time darkness as storm clouds and high winds rolled in.

The rain though took time to properly begin and so drivers just had time to complete one fast lap in Q3 on slick tyres. Verstappen, who overtook Russell on his way out of the pit lane, set his time first with conditions only gradually getting worse for those behind him on the road.

The clouds started to truly burst as the drivers headed back to the pits, meaning the session was soon red-flagged with four minutes remaining. With so few minutes on the clock, and the weather only worsening, Race Control soon decided that the pole shootout would not be restarted and so the Q3 timesheet stood as it was.

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Fernando Alonso said ‘we needed it’ after his and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin’s qualified third and fourth at the Sao Paulo GP

While McLaren badly lost out, Aston Martin had been quick on their feet at the start of Q3 and profited from the truncated session to take a morale-boosting third and fourth on the grid after a miserable run of recent races for the team.

Lance Stroll outqualified Fernando Alonso for just the third time this year and he will start as the team’s lead car in third place, the Canadian’s best starting berth for three years.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the polesitter for the first two legs of F1’s ongoing Americas triple header, will start alongside Verstappen on the front row while Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell qualified fifth and sixth respectively.

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Yuki Tsunoda rants at Lewis Hamilton after missing out on Q2 of the Sao Paulo GP

With Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to share the fourth row, under-pressure Sergio Perez is back on row five in ninth place for Red Bull after unfortunate timing meant he passed Piastri while the McLaren was spinning on the grass and therefore had to slow down for yellow flags.

But, not for the first time, there was no such misfortune for the other Red Bull.

“We didn’t know when it would hit in qualifying, we thought it would hit,” said polesitter Verstappen. “This is of course insane weather.

“Charles and I were just discussing, our laps felt terrible, but I don’t know, I think the wind started to change and started to be very strong and we lost a lot of lap time because of it. It was all quite hectic in the last lap.”

Sao Paulo GP Qualifying result: Top 10
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
3) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
4) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
6) George Russell, Mercedes
7) Lando Norris, McLaren
8) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
9) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
10) Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Full Qualifying results

With a exciting-looking mixed-up grid in place for Sunday’s grand prix, attention now turns to Saturday’s standalone Sprint events at Interlagos.

The Sprint Shootout to set the grid for the Sprint itself starts at 2pm, with the 24-lap mini race when points are awarded to the top-eight finishers following at 6.30pm.

The full-length Grand Prix, which uses the results from Friday’s qualifying to set its grid, is on Sunday at 5pm with build-up from 3.30pm. All sessions are live on Sky Sports F1.

Norris reflects on pole bypass as rain arrives at the wrong time for rapid McLaren

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Lando Norris felt pole position was a possibility before the rain fell during qualifying of the Sao Paulo GP

“This is absolutely crazy. I have never ever seen a change of weather so drastically as that.”

The words of Mercedes’ Russell as bemused drivers conducted their post-qualifying interviews in conditions more akin to one of F1’s night races.

The effect of the sudden turnaround in conditions was nowhere more starkly felt at McLaren, who had been strongly threatening to deliver the first pole of their resurgent season up until Q3.

On one of the shortest laps of the season where qualifying is always decided by fine margins, Norris had lapped an impressive 0.141s faster than Verstappen in the totally-dry conditions of Q2 in a car well suited to the undulating sweeps of Brazil’s most famous circuit.

The Englishman had also been the only driver to only need one fast lap in Q1 to make the first cut.

“I don’t know what do feel about it,” admitted Norris, whose wait for a second career pole and first since Russia 2021 continues.

“The car was amazing, it came alive a lot in qualifying and easily good enough to be quickest.

“Obviously delivering the lap and putting it together in Q3 and everything is a different job, but easily quick enough.

“So another disappointing Saturday, but not a lot we could have done.”

F1 is in Brazil for the final leg of the Americas triple header and the last Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Watch every session from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s race at 5pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW