F1 Brazilian GP Live Commentary and Updates – Sprint Quali & Race
Saturday's action from the 20th round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
Live AppleTV Race Audio
Interlagos hosts the closing leg of the final triple header of the year, with just two races remaining of the 2023 season after the chequered flag falls on Sunday's grand prix.
While Max Verstappen and Red Bull may have respectively wrapped up the titles, the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez for second in the drivers' standings is fierce.
As is the fight at the bottom of the constructors' standings, with the margins separating Williams, AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Haas closing at recent events.
Following yesterday's rain-shortened qualifying session headed by Verstappen, the sixth and final sprint race of the year will start at 6:30pm GMT, following sprint qualifying at 2:00pm GMT.
Unsurprisingly the Mercedes do don't want to wait on their laurels and head out again as the cars on the bubble. Everybody now ventures out for the final time in SQ2, that is barring Alonso whose car it appears won't be ready in time.
Moments after Leclerc goes third for Ferrari, Sainz splits the two Red Bulls and falls just 0.132s shy of Verstappen's best. That nudges Leclerc back to fourth ahead of Piastri, Hulkenberg and Norris.
But Norris is quickly bumped down two positions as Piastri claims third and Hulkenberg goes fourth for Haas. The 2010 polesitter clearly has an affinity with this place.
All teams will again use medium tyres in SQ2. And with four different makes at the top of the charts in SQ1 it's anybody's guess for now who will make it through to the top 10 shootout.
As a reminder, here's the cause of the delay. Ocon's Alpine struck the barriers with a fair old whack after being clipped on the right-rear by Alonso's slow-moving Aston.
Autosport.com editor Haydn Cobb reminds me that this isn't the first time Ocon has come unstuck at the Senna S. Remember when he tried to unlap himself from Verstappen in 2018 when the Dutchman was leading, resulting in contact at the apex of Turn 2?
As repairs continue on the barriers, here's a rundown on who will take part in SQ2: Sainz, Norris, Hamilton, Verstappen, Russell, Magnussen, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Perez, Alonso, Gasly, Bottas, Piastri and Tsunoda.
Liam Lawson is back in the paddock in his reserve role for Red Bull and AlphaTauri this weekend. He was out in Japan last weekend finishing off his Super Formula season in a double-header at Suzuka, with Ritomo Miyata ultimately claiming the crown.
Thinking of other famous incidents at Interlagos's Turn 3, what about Nick Heidfeld and the medical car in 2002? He'd attempted to thread the needle to the left of Enrique Bernoldi's crashed Arrows during the warmup, but only hit the door of the parked Merc. This amazing picture by James Moy catches the moment.
We mentioned the car graveyard at Turn 3 back in 2003. Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Antonio Pizzonia, Justin Wilson, Jos Verstappen and Juan Pablo Montoya were all caught out there by a river running across the track.
Russell, Norris, Piastri and - somewhat redundantly - Ocon will be investigated after the session for failing to follow race director's instructions regarding maximum delta time.
Interesting, replays from on-board Ocon show he had a big tank slapper exiting Turn 2 which put him off-line and wider than he normally would have been at the point of impact.
Yikes. Replays show Alonso was trawling slowly off-line through Turn 3 before moving slightly left just as Ocon came barrelling down his inside. The contact on Ocon's right-rear sent him spinning into the tyre barriers that collected so many cars back in 2003.
Magnussen radios in to tell his team he has something stuck in one of his front wheels, which he believes to be a deflector. But he's in a position of relative safety in fifth for the time being, ahead of Norris and Leclerc.
A lurid slide through Turn 2 has Oscar Piastri down in 14th and in danger of elimination. He's unable to improve on his second flier, but can anybody else take advantage?
Verstappen sounds flustered on the radio as Perez comes by him into the final corner, thinking he had blocked a flyer. But Gianpiero Lambiase replies telling him that the Mexican's overtake was not expected.
Sainz was fastest through the first and final sectors, while Hamilton has the quickest middle sector of anybody so far. Just 0.074s split them at the line.
Remember, there are slightly different rules involved with sprint qualifying. You can read about them here, but the top-line info you need to know is that new tyres are mandatory for each phase of qualifying: medium tyres for SQ1 and SQ2, soft tyres for SQ3.
