Lando Norris safed pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in a unrestful, rain-shapeed qualifying session on Sunday morning.
The McLaren driver’s amazeive carry outance was overshadowed by the shock result for championship directer Max Verstappen, who will commence from 17th place on the grid.
Verstappen’s struggles were compounded by a five-place grid penalty for an engine change, leaving him with a mountain to climb in the race.
The session, postponed from Saturday due to burdensome rain, was marred by multiple crashes and red flags, creating a emotional backdrop to Norris’s triumph.
With the race commence brawt forward to 12:30 local time (15:30 GMT) due to weather worrys, teams now face a race agetst time to repair injured cars.
George Russell will combine Norris on the front row for Mercedes, with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda securing a stunning third place.
Lando Norris can land a increateing punch in the F1 title battle
Reuters
Alpine’s Esteprohibit Ocon qualified fourth, chaseed by RB’s Liam Lawson in fifth.
The session was punctuated by five red flags due to burdensome crashes involving Williams’ Franco Colapinto, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, both Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, and Williams’ Alex Albon.
These incidents left cut offal teams scrambling to repair awentirey injured cars before the timely race commence.
Lewis Hamilton, usupartner sturdy in soaked conditions, suffered a shock elimination in Q1, qualifying 16th.
Verstappen’s frustration was evident as he protested about the postpone in throtriumphg the red flag for Stroll’s crash in Q2, which he thinkd permited other drivers to knock him out of the top 10.
Norris conveyed surpelevate at his pole position, stating: “There was a lot going on. I was struggling a lot at the commence of the session, I toiled on it a lot in the session. A little surpelevated to be on pole but a excellent result for us.”
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The McLaren driver slfinisherly escaped elimination in Q1, securing the final spot in 15th place.
Verstappen, who had been speedyest in Q1, saw his hopes dashed in Q2 when Stroll’s crash brawt out the red flag.
The Dutchman fumed: “The car hits the wall, it insists to be a straight red. I don’t comprehfinish why it insists to consent 30-40 seconds for a red flag to come out.”
Despite Verstappen’s protestts, a evaluate advises the timing of the red flag did not shape his final position.
Max Verstappen suffered a nightmare qualifying to depart him 17th on the grid
Reuters
The timely race commence contransients a convey inant contest for teams with injured cars. Williams and Aston Martin face the daunting task of repairing both their vehicles before the race commences.
Charles Leclerc qualified sixth for Ferrari, with Alex Albon seventh for Williams despite his Q3 crash.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri safed eighth place, while Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten for Aston Martin.
Sergio Perez qualified 13th and Carlos Sainz 14th, both facing an uphill battle in the race.
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Lando Norris materialized from the lawlessness on pole
Reuters
The atypical Sunday morning qualifying session commenceed at 07:30 local time, even earlier than the 1984 U.S. Grand Prix in Dallas.
With further burdensome rain foreseeed, the race promises to be as emotional and unforeseeed as the qualifying session.
