A very complicated race awaits at Interlagos, where the drivers are preparing to compete in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Indeed, the qualification was postponed yesterday and took place early this morning, at 7:30 a.m. local time.
Lando Norris took pole position in the rain and shares the front row with George Russell. The second row is very surprising with the presence of Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon, third and fourth. Liam Lawson is fifth ahead of Charles Leclerc.
Alex Albon qualified seventh but crashed in Q3 and Williams announced he would not take part in the race as his FW46 was too damaged. Oscar Piastri will therefore be seventh at the start ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Aston Martin did an exceptional job of putting both cars on the grid after both drivers suffered an accident each during qualifying. Valtteri Bottas starts tenth, his best qualifying of the season, ahead of Sergio Pérez.
Pierre Gasly follows ahead of Lewis Hamilton, then Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto and Max Verstappen, who qualified 12th and received a five-place penalty for an out-of-quota engine change. He is 16th at the start with Albon's package. Nico Hülkenberg and Guanyu Zhou are on the ninth row, while Carlos Sainz, also injured, starts from the pits.
