New championship points leader Lando Norris achieved his first sprint pole of the season at Interlagos, edging out Andrea Kimi Antonelli from Mercedes and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
Norris was supreme on both of his SQ3 laps to fend off a strong effort from Mercedes Antonelli, who split the two championship contending, as Verstappen struggled for grip in his Red Bull.
Norris took provisional pole on his first SQ3 lap from both Mercedes cars and Piastri, with the McLaren driver’s one minute, 09.271 seconds the target lap to beat.
Norris and Piastri then stayed out for two cooldown laps before launching again on the same set of softs, while Russell, Antonelli followed a similar strategy with one cooldown lap.
Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, who had surprisingly led SQ2, were among the five cars deciding to bank everything on a single flying lap instead.
But as it happened, both McLaren drivers found more pace on their second attempt, with Norris laying down a marker with one minute, 09.243 seconds. That was one tenth quicker than Antonelli, who managed to edge out Piastri as he only marginally improved as well.
George Russell was fourth in the other Mercedes, while Alonso held off a puzzled Verstappen for fifth.
Lance Stroll was seventh on a strong day for Aston Martin, ahead of Charles Leclerc, with Isack Hadjar and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top ten.
Alonso had already played a starring role in SQ2 by leading the first set of runs from Norris, Piastri and Russell. The two-time world champion’s one minute, 09.330 seconds would stay on top until the end as few drivers found improvements on their second flying lap on the same set of medium tyres, which are mandatory in the first two sprint qualifying segments.
Hamilton was on the outside looking in by only going P11, largely due to a lock-up, while Ferrari teammate Leclerc not particularly safe in ninth. Even world champion Verstappen was under pressure in eighth, just one tenth removed from the drop zone, as he called his Red Bull car “completely broken”.
On the second run none of the three drivers improved, with Hamilton not even making it across the line in time due to yellow flags as he was dropped out in P11. But Verstappen and a spinning Leclerc were handed a reprieve when none of their rivals improved substantially either.
Albon and Gasly missed a chance to advance to SQ3, lining up behind Hamilton in P12 and P13. Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto also could not make the top ten on his home debut, taking P14 ahead of Haas driver Oliver Bearman.
In SQ1 Norris convincingly set the fastest time – one minute, 09.627 seconds on mediums – three tenths ahead of Verstappen and Piastri.
Franco Colapinto could not celebrate the confirmation of his 2026 Alpine contract with an SQ2 spot, being knocked out at the last second by Stroll.
Colapinto was P16 ahead of Liam Lawson, a disappointing Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon. Sainz was eliminated and is P20 after locking up his front left wheel into Turn 1, labelling Williams’ qualifying effort “the worst execution ever”.
So congratulations to Lando Norris in achieving his front sprint pole this season. By starting from the top end of the grid compared to his title rivals, this is advantage moment for Norris to score more important points.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.243
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:09.340
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:09.428
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:09.495
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:09.496
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:09.580
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:09.671
8 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:09.725
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:09.775
10 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:09.935
11 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:09.811
12 Alexander Albon Williams 1:09.813
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:09.852
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:09.923
15 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:09.946
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:10.441
17 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:10.666
18 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:10.692
19 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:10.872
20 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:11.120
Lando Norris put in an impressive lap to take pole position during Sprint Qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the Briton beating Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri to seal P1.
After setting a benchmark with his banker lap during SQ3, Norris went even quicker with his final effort of 1m 09.243s, a time that proved unbeatable to his rivals. Antonelli was the closest challenger, the Silver Arrows racer 0.097s behind as he took the other spot on the front row.
Despite showing good pace during Friday, Piastri had to settle for third, while George Russell added to a decent day for Mercedes in fourth. Aston Martin also enjoyed a solid outing at Interlagos, with Fernando Alonso clinching fifth ahead of Lance Stroll in seventh.
Sandwiched between them was Max Verstappen, the Red Bull man seen seemingly shaking his head in disappointment after crossing the line. Charles Leclerc was eighth for Ferrari, while Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-clinches-pole-position-in-sao-paulo-sprint-qualifying-from-antonelli.GFg5BnhdcWijQNcssW4dO
McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella believes the intra-team title battle between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri won’t escalate as the pair head into the final four race weekends separated by a single point.
Norris heads into the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend as the new championship leader after demoting team-mate Piastri in Mexico, with defending champion Max Verstappen 36 points behind the Briton.
McLaren’s almost unprecedented insistence on letting its drivers free to fight has helped keep the 2025 drivers’ championship alive, even though its hands-on approach to balancing the concept of fairness has required significant buy-in from its two drivers.
That process hasn’t entirely gone without a hitch, given Piastri’s unease at being asked to swap positions with Norris in Monza, which prompted in-depth discussions. Piastri and Norris then clashed in Singapore, which triggered “repercussions” against Norris that were cancelled out when the pair made contact again in Austin, for which Piastri was predominantly held responsible. The pair have been back on a clean slate since Mexico.
By and large Norris and Piastri have cooperated as normal, however, and team boss Stella doesn’t see any reason for that to change after all the work the Italian has done in the background to foster the team’s equal treatment culture.
When asked if there’s a possibility Norris and Piastri will derail their relationship during the 2025 title run-in, Stella replied: “I don’t think that’s the case.
“Obviously, both drivers have known for a long time that the car was competitive, so they knew that there was a possibility to fight for the championship. But I don’t see that this is escalating in anything more than focusing each of them on their own weekend and try to extract the maximum.
“This requires a high level of dialogue, but this is something that normally we can do well at McLaren.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/stella-mclaren-not-naive-but-doesnt-see-norris-piastri-f1-fight-escalate/10774528/
Max Verstappen says his Brazilian Grand Prix sprint qualifying was “just rubbish” after being restricted to sixth place in a Red Bull Formula 1 car that lacked grip and suffered over the bumps.
Verstappen and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda both appeared to struggle for grip around the newly resurfaced 4.3km Interlagos circuit, with Tsunoda dumped out in SQ1 while Verstappen only made it to the top 10 shootout by one tenth.
But despite advancing Verstappen never featured in the fight for sprint pole, which was won by McLaren’s championship leader Lando Norris ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri.
After reporting his car felt “completely broken” over the radio, Verstappen was beaten to sixth by Fernando Alonso.
“It was just rubbish,” Verstappen told Viaplay. “I had a lot of vibrations in the car and bounced all over the place. Other than that I just had no grip in the slow corners. The car wouldn’t turn and I had no traction either, so that was it.”
After a reasonable run on the hard tyres in Friday’s sole practice session, Verstappen’s handling issues were exposed by his one-lap running on the soft tyre, abandoning his only FP1 qualifying sim.
“On hard tyres I didn’t feel those problems that much, but on the softs it was already not feeling good. And it was the same story in sprint qualifying,” he added.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-explains-rubbish-brazil-f1-sprint-qualifying/10774610/
McLaren’s Lando Norris struggled during sprint qualifying despite securing pole position for the sprint race.
The British driver secured sprint pole with a time of 1m09.243s. He was closely followed by Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli and his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in second and third, respectively.
While he is set to start from the front, Norris noted difficulties with timing, the track surface, and struggles during the only practice session.
“Not at my best, but good enough today,” he told the media after the session. “I struggled a little bit more in FP1. I mean, it’s a difficult track, it’s an amazing track to drive, but difficult.
“Easy to get timings wrong, bumps wrong, and I still got a couple of little bits here or there wrong on my final lap, but still quick enough. I think it’s always tricky. Also, when you go onto the soft tyre. Do you push 20% more, 10%, 5%? Do you actually back it off a little bit? But a good enough lap for pole, so I’m very happy.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lando-norris-details-tricky-brazil-gp-sprint-qualifying-despite-pole-position/10774662/