Achievement unlocked for Kevin Magnussen as he scored his first-ever Formula 1 pole position, for the Haas team, ahead of the sprint race at Interlagos.
The Dane, who was recalled to the team for this season after the ousting of Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, remarkably landed top spot when a red flag in a murky Q3 allowed conditions to deteriorate.
That meant no one could improve in the final minutes of qualifying to leave the American outfit to watch the clock until it was assured of its maiden pole and the celebrations erupted.
The drama of Q3 began when Ferrari took a major gamble by sending Leclerc out on a set of intermediate tyres to pre-empt the return of rain – qualifying having started damp before drying up.
The nine other contenders, meanwhile, emerged on slick Pirelli tyres.
The Scuderia appeared to be hoping that the showers would arrive in time to catch out the dry runners while its driver would be on the right compound at the optimum time before the conditions got worse.
However, Leclerc soon realised he was the odd on out and was venting his anger, even waving to the pit wall as he passed to begin his flying lap.
He ran slowest of all through the first sector, was struggling for grip and holding up the pursuing Sergio Perez before aborting the run and diving into the pitlane for a shot on slicks.
With the intermediates now clearly the wrong option, slick-runner Magnussen was able to bolt to a one minute, 11.674 seconds lap to take top spot away from Red Bull’s Verstappen by some two tenths.
Then George Russell – who had just ran to third place – dropped his Mercedes W13 into the gravel on the exit of Turn 4 to bring out the red flags.
The Mercedes driver appeared to lock the front-right into the left-hander and the rear clipped the slippery white line to pitch him off. As he tried to spin to recover, he ditched the rear axle into the gravel.
While Russell initially kept the rear wheels spinning and signalled to the marshals to perform a live recovery of his car, he eventually retired from the session.
But with the threat of rain having already loomed large, the delay was long enough to allow the wet weather to return and no one could find time despite more than five minutes remaining.
In the knowledge that they would not improve, the drivers started to exit their cars to cue the Haas celebrations.
Russel would therefore keep third place despite his shunt, while Lando Norris clocked fourth for McLaren ahead of Carlos Sainz – although the Ferrari driver to poised to start in tenth owing to a five-place grid penalty for a change of internal combustion engine.
Esteban Ocon ran to sixth ahead of Alpine team-mate Fernando Alonso, while Perez – having been delayed by Leclerc – clocked only ninth position.
Ocon had scrapped into the top ten by a slender 0.045 seconds at the expense of Alex Albon, while Pierre Gasly ran to P12 ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll.
The dying second of Q2 were something of a damp squib as the at-risk Mercedes improved.
They appeared to be under threat when some drivers reported that more rain was arriving late on, the Silver Arrows having by then only lapped on used softs to run outside the top ten.
But as the Aston Martins notably struggled to improve, Russell eventually climbed to third with five minutes to run. Hamilton slotted directly behind in fourth but was shuffled to ninth.
Sainz also comfortably climbed to second in Q2 in the end, the British GP winner having sat tenth and only 0.008 seconds clear of the drop zone but he moved clear of the danger zone by running to a one minute, 10.890 seconds to best Leclerc by 0.06 seconds and run just 0.009 seconds shy of pacesetter Verstappen.
Ferrari had already been forced to survive a considerable Q1 scare when the initially damp conditions improved sufficiently to allow for a switch to the softs after slick-tyre guinea pig Gasly began setting the fastest sectors.
Gasly was struggling for grip initially, sliding well wide through the final corner, but next time around the Alpine-bound racer ran fastest by 0.6s and then improved by another one seconds.
To respond, the Scuderia crew jacked up Leclerc’s car but only had a scrubbed set on hand, so a delay ensued while new boots were finally retrieved as Sainz was held in a double stack.
Then Leclerc was forced to abort his first flying lap on the red-walled rubber when he was held up by Yuki Tsunoda through the final sector, in turn delaying his chasing team-mate.
While Sainz still managed to improve, Leclerc had it all to do on his final run but did enough to make it to 12th and survive the late flurry, as Nicholas Latifi just missed the cut-off for Q2.
The departing Williams driver had topped the session only moments earlier after he bolted on the dry tyres but was rapidly shuffled down to miss the threshold by 0.16 seconds to Ricciardo.
In a session to forget for the Alfa Romeo team-mates, Zhou Guanyu ranked only P17 ahead of Valtteri Bottas as AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher lapped slowest of all.
Congratulations to K-Mag with this fine achievement. To have a Haas on pole position is just epic and such a feel good story for Formula 1. The sprint race is going to be fascinating to see if Magnussen can hold off Verstappen to score the ‘proper’ pole.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:11.674
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:11.877
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.059
4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:12.263
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:12.357
6 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:12.425
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:12.504
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:12.611
9 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:15.601
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari No time
11 Alex Albon Williams 1:11.631
12 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:11.675
13 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:11.678
14 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:12.140
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.210
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:15.095
17 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:15.197
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:15.486
19 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:16.264
20 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:16.361
Sao Paulo Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Eight months after making his shock return to Formula 1, Kevin Magnussen took a stunning pole position in qualifying for the 2022 Sao Paulo Sprint.
Although Q1 began on a damp track, slicks were soon fitted and it was Lando Norris who led the opening session, before Max Verstappen took over in a dry Q2. The top-10 shootout was a different story.
With two minutes of Q3 completed, Kevin Magnussen was top of the timesheets, and it was then that George Russell locked up and beached his Mercedes at Turn 5, bringing out a red flag to leave the Dane incredulous. A short stoppage later, and the rain began to fall: Magnussen’s time would stand, and he would have his first Formula 1 pole position.
Verstappen finished second, 0.203s off the pace, while Russell took third for the Sprint. Norris ended up fourth for McLaren, while Carlos Sainz – who has a five-place penalty for Sunday – rounded out the top five.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon qualified sixth ahead of team mate Fernando Alonso, leaving Lewis Hamilton eighth for Mercedes, Sergio Perez ninth for Red Bull, and Charles Leclerc 10th for Ferrari.
Lando Norris headed a wet-dry Q1 after showers hit the circuit ahead of qualifying, before the track quickly dried.
Q2 was run in dry conditions – though the rain began to fall just as the chequered flew – with Alex Albon missing out on safety by 0.044s as he qualified 11th. Pierre Gasly was 12th for AlphaTauri ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, while a mistake saw Vettel’s team mate Lance Stroll qualify 15th for the Sprint.
Times tumbled dramatically in Q1, but every driver managed to lap on soft tyres after Gasly sparked the changeover. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was 16th ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in 17th and his 18th-placed team mate Valtteri Bottas – who rued a second run on new intermediates – while Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher are set to occupy the final row for the start of the Sprint.
Q1 – Norris sets pace in a frenetic wet-dry start to qualifying
A lashing of rain made for a slick surface for the start of Q1 in Brazil – with a headwind buffeting the drivers into Turn 1. This trio of segments would set the grid for Saturday’s Sprint, which in turn would set the grid for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
With more rainclouds approaching, drivers quickly emerged to set laps on intermediates, and with 10 minutes remaining it was Alonso who set the benchmark of 1m 18.412s ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen and then Perez – with times quickly tumbling as the track dried. Tsunoda, the Haas drivers and the Williams duo found themselves in the drop-zone early on.
Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri team mate Gasly then took the opportunity to swap for soft tyres, followed by the Williams drivers and Ricciardo. That set the tone for the rest of the field – Gasly going fastest with a time of 1m 16.557s with five minutes left – as a mad rush began to capitalise on drying conditions.
In a frantic conclusion to Q1, it was Norris who went fastest with a time of 1m 13.106s, which was 0.297s faster than runner-up Hamilton’s time and another 0.15s faster than Alonso’s run. Vettel finished fourth, half a second off the pace, while FP1 leader Perez rounded out the top five ahead of Verstappen.
Magnussen took second while Albon made it through in P8, Gasly eventually dropping to ninth and Stroll going 10th. Russell finished 11th ahead of Leclerc – who called Tsunoda a “joke” for impeding his running – while Ocon took 13th and grid-penalty-hit Sainz 14th.
Ricciardo squeezed through to Q2 in P15 at the expense of Williams driver Latifi – 0.164s off safety. The Alfa Romeos were next as 18th-placed Bottas lamented a second run on intermediates, while Tsunoda and Schumacher were also eliminated in 19th and 20th, respectively.
Knocked out: Latifi, Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda, Schumacher
Q2 – Verstappen leads Sainz by 0.009s as rain approaches
The threat of rain hadn’t quite dissipated for the start of Q2, though DRS was enabled for the session. Midway through the session, Verstappen led with a time of 1m 11.318s, with Alonso 0.078s back and Leclerc another 0.15s behind the Alpine driver.
Airwaves lit up with reports of drizzle with six minutes remaining, when Vettel, Ricciardo, Russell, Stroll and Hamilton were at risk of elimination. Despite those reports, there were improvements across the board: Verstappen consolidated his position with a 1m 10.881s.
Sainz was runner-up in Q2, 0.009s off the Red Bull, while Leclerc was another 0.060s off in P3. Russell reached safety with P4 and Norris rounded out the top five ahead of Alonso.
To applause in the Haas garage, Magnussen took a stellar seventh, Perez claimed eighth and Hamilton ninth – with Ocon rounding out the top 10 for his first Q3 appearance at Interlagos.
That left Albon 11th, 0.044s off safety, while Gasly took 12th and Vettel 13th. Ricciardo was eliminated in 14th and, with a lock-up on his flying lap, Stroll finished 15th – with the rain returning just as the chequered flag flew for Q2.
Knocked out: Albon, Gasly, Vettel, Ricciardo, Stroll
Q3 – Magnussen brings home his first ever pole
As a train of cars queued up at the end of the pit lane to begin proceedings for Q3, Leclerc rolled the dice for intermediates as the rest chose slicks, with their eyes on the skies. The Monegasque driver crawled around on his out-lap but, in an unexpected turn, stayed out to lap on the treaded tyres.
Perez, who was right behind Leclerc’s rear wing, saw his first lap compromised by the wayward Ferrari; it was clear that this was soft tyre territory, and Leclerc pitted for slicks after 90 seconds of struggling.
Just after Leclerc pitted, Russell brought out a red flag having locked up and beached his Mercedes in the gravel at Turn 5. With eight minutes and 10 seconds on the clock, Magnussen was top with a time of 1m 11.674s, Verstappen 0.203s behind. The Haas garage was a picture of anxiety during the stoppage.
“You’re kidding,” said Magnussen when he was told of his provisional position. “Don’t celebrate yet!” he implored.
The session resumed at 1959 local time and Perez emerged to test the conditions on inters – though a 1m 11.6s was all but impossible on those compounds. Leclerc had all but given up as he returned to the pit wall to speak to Ferrari Racing Director Laurent Mekies. Verstappen was out of the car soon afterwards.
As drivers gradually clambered out of their cockpits, ponchos unfurled, the clock ticking down, one thing was clear: Magnussen would have his first career pole position. He was shaking his head, laughing, in the cockpit of his VF-22, as ecstatic crowds drew forward to applaud the Dane – who in turn was embraced with all the might of Team Principal Guenther Steiner once he’d finally clambered out of the car.
Verstappen had to settle for second, 0.203s off the pace, while Russell ended up third before his Turn 5 off, the Briton 0.385s off Magnussen’s benchmark. Norris qualified fourth and Sainz – who has a five-place penalty for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix – rounded out the top five.
Then it was the Alpines, Ocon in sixth and Alonso seventh, while Hamilton took eighth – the seven-time champion treating the fans to a final intermediate-shod run at the end of Q3. Perez managed ninth in Q3, while an angry Leclerc rounded out the top 10.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen ‘not even close’ to dreaming of shock first Formula 1 pole. Motorsport.com provides the story.
Kevin Magnussen was “not even close” to thinking of scoring his maiden Formula 1 pole position ahead of qualifying in Brazil before his shock result for Haas.
Magnussen will start Saturday’s sprint race at Interlagos from pole position after topping Q3 on Friday evening, getting in a lap early in the session before a red flag caused by George Russell’s off and rain meant no other driver could improve.
Magnussen took pole by two-tenths of a second ahead of world champion Max Verstappen, marking the Dane’s maiden F1 pole, as well as the first for Haas since the team joined the grid in 2016.
It also marks a dramatic turnaround in Magnussen’s fortunes through 2022, having started the year without an F1 seat before being drafted in by Haas on the eve of the new season to replace Nikita Mazepin.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Magnussen in parc ferme.
“The team put me out on track on exactly the right moment. We were first out in the pit lane, did a pretty decent lap, and we’re on pole. It’s incredible.
“Thank you to Gene Haas and Gunther [Steiner] and the whole team for this opportunity. I got back this year after a year out, and it’s just been an amazing journey. Thank you.”
Asked if he’d ever expected such a result when waking up this morning, Magnussen replied: “Not even close. It’s incredible. Thank you.”
Magnussen was heard in the radio expressing his disbelief on his in-lap when told that he was P1, saying: “I’ve never, ever felt like this in my life.”
He warned the team not to celebrate yet, knowing the session would restart, but as the clock ticked down and the rain grew heavier, the result began to sink in for Magnussen and the Haas team in the garage.
Magnussen will lead the field away for the 24-lap sprint race on Saturday, which will offer eight points for the winner and set the grid for the grand prix on Sunday.
Magnussen said he would go for “maximum attack” in the sprint, adding: “Let’s go for something funny.”
Gunther Steiner commented that Kevin Magnussen’s Brazil Formula 1 pole ‘wasn’t down to luck’. Motorsport.com has the details.
Haas Formula 1 boss Gunther Steiner says Kevin Magnussen’s shock pole for the Brazilian Grand Prix was not down to luck and is “well deserved” after producing a “perfect” lap.
Magnussen scored the first pole position of his F1 career at Interlagos on Friday after making the most of his track position advantage at the start of Q3 in damp conditions.
Magnussen’s early lap time put him on provisional pole, two tenths of a second clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, after getting to the front of the queue to exit the pits before the expected rain hit the track.
A red flag following George Russell’s spin into the gravel meant that by the time the session resumed, the rain had intensified and meant no one could beat Magnussen’s effort.
It sparked wild celebrations for Magnussen and Haas, the team celebrating its first pole since joining the F1 grid back in 2016.
Haas team principal Steiner said on Sky Sports after qualifying that it ranked “number one” among his career moments, saying he had been “scared to dream” of such an achievement.
“We are trying hard, the whole team has been trying hard for seven years, and then circumstances let us pull this one off,” said Steiner.
“But I think it was not luck. It was well deserved, from the driver, from the team being on the right tyres at the right time, Kevin putting a lap down when it was needed.
“You need to go out there, he was first out there. You can say yeah, he had an advantage, but [as] a disadvantage, he had nobody to gauge with. He was on his own. He put a lap down, and it stuck.
“When it rains soup, you need to have a spoon! And we had a spoon ready today!”
Steiner said Magnussen put “just a perfect lap down” in the conditions on slick tyres, having known it was key to get into the pit lane early before the session went green.
“We just can do what we can do,” said Steiner. “I think the other cars that are only 10, 15, 20 seconds behind us, they couldn’t do what he did.
“A credit to him, he was given the opportunity and he took it.”
The result comes on Magnussen’s 100th grand prix weekend for Haas, completing a dramatic turnaround since the start of the year when he was planning to race in sportscars, only to be drafted in as a replacement for Nikita Mazepin on the eve of the new season.
“He deserves a lot, the whole team deserves it,” Steiner added.
“We always work hard, we never give up, we keep on fighting, and you will always have naysayers. But welcome to our pole position, naysayers!”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said that the Turn 8 lock up cost him pole at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Motorsport.com has the full story.
Max Verstappen reckons a lock-up he suffered on his only qualifying lap in Q3 at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix cost him the chance of beating Kevin Magnussen to pole position.
With rain falling steadily right at the start of Q3, all the drivers knew that their best opportunity to put in a time would come right at the beginning of the session.
Magnussen, who led the cars out of the pits, had the best of the conditions and pulled off a brilliant lap to grab a shock maiden pole position for both himself and his Haas team.
But Verstappen, who had been favourite to take the top spot, reckons he would have ended the session on top if he did not make a mistake halfway around the lap.
The world champion said that a small lock up at Turn 8 – the tight right-hander after Laranjinha – made the difference as deteriorating conditions meant there was no second chance to improve, especially after the red flag stoppage for George Russell’s off.
“We knew that it was going be that one lap, because there was the potential rain,” explained the Red Bull driver.
“I think I was like the fourth or fifth car, and I locked up into Turn 8. So that’s, of course, cost me pole today.
“But still, compared to the proper opposition for tomorrow, it’s looking good. And, in these conditions, anything can happen. And we are still up front, which is the most important.”
Verstappen admitted that the changing conditions through qualifying, which started damp in Q1 then dried out before it rained again for Q3, had made it especially tricky to judge how much risk to take.
“It was difficult,” he said. “You have to find the limit of how much you can push. But then also, you don’t want to have big mistakes and potentially drop out.
“So we just stayed calm from Q1 to Q2. Then Q3 was a little bit more of a lottery. But nevertheless, I’m still on the front row.”
Verstappen starts one place in front of Mercedes driver Russell, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc left languishing in 10th after Ferrari sent him out on intermediates at the start of Q3.
And with Saturday’s sprint race giving Verstappen a chance to move forward before Sunday’s main grand prix, he was relaxed about the situation.
Asked if, with the championship now done, he could take more risks and have fun in the sprint, Verstappen said: “I will always try to have fun, but I think the approach should always be the same.
“But yeah, let’s see how competitive we’re going to be tomorrow in the race. Also the weather. I have no clue what’s going to happen. But that is what makes Interlagos always very special for everyone.”
Ferrari says Charles Leclerc’s intermediate tyre selection for Q3 at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix was part of a split strategy gamble prompted by its weather forecast for immediate rain.
The Maranello squad raised some eyebrows for the final shoot-out qualifying element at Interlagos when Leclerc was the only driver to head out on the circuit with intermediate tyres. Although rain was blowing in, the track was dry enough for slicks and that meant Leclerc’s option proved totally wrong as he ended up being slowest out of the 10 runners.
Leclerc was left deeply disappointed by the move, and vowed to speak to his bosses on Friday night to discuss how it could do things better in the future.
“We were expecting some rain which never came,” said the Monegasque driver. “I will speak with the team and try to understand what we can do better in those conditions. But I’m extremely disappointed. The pace was there.”
Ferrari has since explained that the decision to go for inters was made because it felt the best way to secure a spot at the front of the grid, with the weather conditions being on a knife-edge, was to split the strategy across both cars.
It believed if the rain had come in as quickly as forecast, then drivers on slicks could have struggled – and that would have left Leclerc on inters in the perfect spot to grab pole position.
Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies said that, while the ‘golden rule’ of motor racing was always to go for slicks when the track was dry, the team felt it worth taking a gamble for Q3 because of the imminent rain.
“It’s a bit frustrating because we got both cars into Q3, and then we were confronted with a tough choice,” he said.
“On one side, you have the track still being dry. And there is a golden rule that says that you should go for that track while it is dry. On the other side, we were expecting heavy rain imminently. Therefore, at the end of the day, we have split our cars [strategy].”
Mekies said Ferrari accepted that one of its drivers would be compromised by the choice, but it felt that the potential rewards were worth it.
“You always know, at that very moment where your cars are going out that, depending on the exact timing of the rain, it’s going to be one happy man and one unhappy man. That’s exactly what happened.
“The rain came probably a minute or two too late for Charles, and was probably the right timing for Carlos who was second on track. It’s the way it is: P5 and P10. It’s the start of a long, long weekend.”
Mekies accepted that Ferrari would need to take on board some lessons from what happened at Interlagos, after a season where its strategy decisions have been under the spotlight.
“We have had many, many good qualifyings this year, including in very tricky conditions like today,” he said.
“But in this sort of difficult situation, there is always a lot to learn about the right decisions to make and about the less right.
“Certainly it’s something that we have taken on board, with good habits, to analyse in detail with teams with drivers and pull together to always look at after. We will use today to make another step together.“
Sainz, who was on the right tyre, reckoned that he lost the chance of getting a slot on the front row because he pushed too hard on his only attempt in Q3 after failing to get at the front of the pit exit line.
“We tried to be starting the queue first,” said the Spaniard, who ended up fifth. “But we lost quite a bit of time behind Charles and we lost a lot of time to Kevin [Magnussen]. This meant that he had probably a drier track than us at that point.
“I tried to push a lot and probably over pushed. I did a couple of big mistakes, like big moments. that probably cost me P2/P3.”
He added: “Today we survived the very tricky conditions and we need to review a couple of things as a team, but we will try to be better next time.”
Source: Motorsport.com