F1 Brazilian GP Live Commentary and Updates - Sprint qualifying

As is customary now, just one hour of practice has been completed and it is straight into a competitive session to decide the grid order for Saturday's sprint race at Interlagos. Coming up is a short, snappy version of the normal qualifying format, starting with a 12-minutes opening session to lose the five slowest drivers.

All the drivers are in their cars ready for the start of SQ1. The laps will come thick and fast with the session just 12 minutes long remember.

The vast majority of the Interlagos circuit has been resurfaced since F1's visit last year but the drivers were complaining of it being very bumpy in practice. Not that it'll change the bumps, but grey clouds have drifted over the track and that's cooled down the track temperature to 42C when it was peaking at 55C during practice. That'll be good news for Mercedes as its car struggles in hotter temperatures.

Piastri leads from Hulkenberg, Lawson, Verstappen and Norris, as all 20 drivers have set a lap time. In the drop zone is Bottas, Stroll, Sainz, Zhou and Colapinto.

Colapinto has had his lap time deleted for track limits at Turn 4, the end of the back straight, but it matters little as it was the lap that left him in last place.

Sainz pushes himself from the drop spots and up to fourth place, which puts Alonso into the relegation zone.

Leclerc has also gone second, 0.188s off Piastri, so both the Ferraris look safely into the next stage of qualifying with three minutes to go.

Lots of drivers are crawling out of the pitlane trying to make a gap on the track for their final push lap of the session. Will anyone get caught out and miss the cut-off before the chequered flag?

But here they come, as Alonso goes 11th to put Gasly into the drop, and then Stroll goes 15th and pushes Ocon down.

But both Alpine drivers respond to climb the order, so we swap around all over again.

Colapinto saves himself with the final lap of the entire grid to go ninth, which pushes Alonso out in SQ1!

Russell leads the early takers, aiming for two runs in this session, and it looks like an even split of eight drivers on track while the other seven are waiting in the pits.

Nobody can get near Norris with that lap, as Sainz goes second but 0.437s off his former team-mate.

Verstappen goes second but cannot get within four-tenths of his title rival. Further back, still no times from both Williams, both Haas and RB's Lawson so they make up the drop zone.

Albon goes eighth and Colapinto is 11th, as both Haas and Lawson head out for their one-and-done runs.

Bearman puts himself fifth! What a lap! Hulkenberg is 10th so he is clinging on to make SQ3.

Lawson goes ninth so that pushes Hulkenberg out in 11th. Perez is also out as he cannot get around in time to start his final lap so he pits. He's out in 12th at best.

Hamilton is also out! The Mercedes driver is only 11th fastest on his final lap as he is beaten by Albon.

Super-sub Bearman makes it into the top 10 shootout, along with both McLarens, both Ferraris and then Verstappen, Gasly, Russell, Lawson and Albon. Eight teams in the top 10.

Piastri leads out McLaren team-mate Norris as the early takers. Everyone on softs for this session, so they are opting to go early to avoid the threat of rain, traffic or yellow flags wrecking this session.

Albon has joined the McLarens for the early laps. There is only six minutes left in the session, so everyone will be out shortly anyway.

Albon goes third but his 1m10.078s is slower than his SQ2 time on medium tyres. There's definitely more lap time out there.

Out come the rest of the top 10 runners, so they each know exactly what they need to beat.

Bearman rides the Senna Esses exit kerbs and lost a lot of time, so he only goes fourth quickest, but then loses his lap time for track limits! He'll be 10th whatever happens.

Leclerc goes second for Ferrari... but there goes Piastri on to provisional pole by beating Norris!