Qualifying report

F1 Brazilian GP: Piastri beats Norris in McLaren 1-2 in sprint qualifying

Piastri's last-gasp effort snatched pole from McLaren team-mate Norris

Oscar Piastri pipped his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to top sprint qualifying at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The McLaren drivers dominated qualifying and took very different approaches to SQ3 compared to their rivals.

Elsewhere, there was a shock SQ2 exit for Lewis Hamilton, while Sergio Perez could only take the changed chassis on his Red Bull RB20 to 13th and Oliver Bearman again shone for Haas.

In SQ3, the McLarens came out very early once on the softs they had all run for the opening two sessions, with rain clouds steadily building up and track temperatures plummeting.

But with softer softs for the 2024 event here, the McLarens had no trouble firing them up, nor keeping the alive on the resurfaced track.

Norris blasted to a 1m08.928s with his first run, with Piastri trailing him before they quickly returned to the pits – in the former’s case for a front wing setting adjustment, while the latter went straight through – before having another attempt on the same set of softs.

Piastri used his second attempt to head Norris by 0.029s with a 1m08.899s, with Norris abandoning his second go after producing a poor middle sector compared to his first attempt.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The best of the single-effort runners in SQ3 was Leclerc, with Verstappen slotting in behind in fourth and Mexico winner Carlos Sainz fifth in the other Ferrari.

Then came George Russell as the sole Mercedes runner in SQ3, as Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson, Alex Albon and Bearman rounded out the top 10.

Bearman might have done better had he not had a big moment in the Senna S and gone so wide in Turn 2 that he had his time deleted for track limits, before staying on a lap that would not count despite having time to back off and go again, plus with the soft tyres apparently capable of doing multiple laps here.

At the end of SQ2 topped by Norris looking in dominant form at this stage, Bearman and Lawson got through with just a single flying lap in the middle segment compared to most of the rest, while Nico Hulkenberg only had one shot too and he failed to progress.

Hulkenberg was knocked out around the big fallers in Hamilton and Perez, with Franco Colapinto and Valtteri Bottas also eliminated for Williams and Sauber respectively.

Perez’s exit came after he failed to complete his final outlap in time and so was ordered to park his car in the pits by Red Bull.

In SQ1, which Norris also topped, Colapinto’s last-gasp improvement knocked out Alonso, who had previously jumped from the drop zone with his second and final run on the mediums.

He was joined in exiting at the first hurdle by Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll, who all set personal bests on their final fliers before being shuffled back, plus Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu.

Brazilian Grand Prix - Sprint qualifying results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Time	km/h
1	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	1'08.899	225.146
2	L. Norris McLaren	4	McLaren	Mercedes	+0.029 1'08.928	225.052
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.254 1'09.153	224.319
4	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	Red Bull	Red Bull	+0.320 1'09.219	224.106
5	C. Sainz Ferrari	55	Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.358 1'09.257	223.983
6	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.544 1'09.443	223.383
7	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Renault	+0.723 1'09.622	222.808
8	L. Lawson RB	30	RB	Red Bull	+1.042 1'09.941	221.792
9	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	+1.179 1'10.078	221.359
10	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	50	Haas	Ferrari
11	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44	Mercedes	Mercedes	+1.042 1'09.941	221.792
12	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27	Haas	Ferrari	+1.065 1'09.964	221.719
13	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11	Red Bull	Red Bull	+1.125 1'10.024	221.529
14	F. Colapinto Williams	43	Williams	Mercedes	+1.376 1'10.275	220.738
15	V. Bottas Sauber	77	Sauber	Ferrari	+1.696 1'10.595	219.737
16	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Mercedes	+2.079 1'10.978	218.552
17	E. Ocon Alpine	31	Alpine	Renault	+2.153 1'11.052	218.324
18	Y. Tsunoda RB	22	RB	Red Bull	+2.222 1'11.121	218.112
19	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Mercedes	+2.381 1'11.280	217.626
20	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24	Sauber	Ferrari	+4.079 1'12.978	212.562
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