Lando Norris is looking extremely confident compared to his championship rivals by taking pole position at Interlagos, as Oscar Piastri had to settle with P4 while Max Verstappen suffered with a lack of grip and is only P16.
While Piastri was able to bounce back from his sprint crash to go take provisional pole in Q3, the McLaren driver was unable to resist his teammate’s super pace and will line up on the second row with P4.
Following his positive sprint result with P2, Andrea Kimi Antonelli repeated the performance by taking a front row slot for Mercedes in qualifying. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc found some pace to take P3 for the Scuderia, one position clear of Oscar Piastri.
After making a mistake on his first Q3 flyer with a lock-up in Turn 1, Norris pieced together a much-improved lap to go to the top with one minute, 09.511 seconds lap.
That proved nearly two tenths faster than Mercedes driver Antonelli in a session decided by tiny margins, with Ferrari’s Leclerc third.
Piastri led the first runs in Q3 with one minute, 09.897 seconds lap, just 0.002 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Leclerc.
But the McLaren driver, who tried to bounce back from crashing out of Saturday morning’s sprint race, could only find a couple of thousandths on his second effort and dropped to fourth on the grid.
Oliver Bearman initially looked like the star of qualifying after looking in contention for pole early on, but ultimately it was fellow rookie Isack Hadjar by qualifying in an outstanding fifth ahead of George Russell, who was confused by balance issues on his Mercedes.
Hadjar’s Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson also enjoyed a strong session in seventh, sharing the fourth row with Bearman after the pair tangled in the sprint race.
Pierre Gasly was an solid ninth for Alpine as the Enstoney-based outfit proved more competitive in Brazil, with Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top ten for Sauber.
Norris also topped Q2 with one minute, 09.616 seconds ahead of a surprising Bearman, while the Ferraris soon came under pressure in the middle of an extremely compact field.
After suffering a big moment on his first attempt Leclerc was on the outside looking in, but he recovered to advance to Q3. The same could not be said from Lewis Hamilton, who had been on the edge and missed the cut by a tenth in P13.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso could not improve on his final attempt and was eliminated in P11 by a tiny 0.016 seconds margin. Underlining just how close the margins were, Alonso missed the cut despite being just a quarter of a second slower than Bearman in second.
Alonso was followed out by Alex Albon. Behind Hamilton in P13, Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz were also knocked out in Q2.
Norris also swept the first qualifying segment ahead of Gasly, Bearman and Piastri, with one minute, 09.656 seconds lap.
But while the McLarens were safely through, their outside title rival Max Verstappen soon found himself in big trouble.
Red Bull’s significant post-sprint set-up changes to answer the RB21’s handling problems appeared to not to be working, as Verstappen set two poor laps on the same set of softs which left the reigning world champion in the drop zone with five minutes to go.
Verstappen found nearly three tenths on his final attempt, but so did the cars around him, leaving the four-time champion a shocking P16, a tenth from safety and a massive eight tenths behind leader Norris.
Verstappen was followed out by Esteban Ocon and Franco Colapinto, who tried to rally from a heavy sprint race crash in a spare chassis. Yuki Tsunoda was also eliminated in P19, meaning Red Bull suffered their first double Q1 exit since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix.
There was huge disappointment for the home fans as Gabriel Bortoleto, unable to make qualifying following his massive sprint race shunt. The Sauber mechanics kept working on his car until the very last second, but were unable to send the driver out in time.
So advantage Lando Norris with pole position. He looks like the championship favourite now, with so much confidence and speed. To be several places ahead of his title rivals in this qualifying session, he looks likely to score a race win in Interlagos. Will be fascinating if Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen can make a recovery.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:09.511
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:09.685
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:09.805
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:09.886
5 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:09.931
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:09.942
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:09.962
8 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:09.977
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:10.002
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:10.039
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:10.001
12 Alexander Albon Williams 1:10.053
13 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:10.100
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:10.161
15 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:10.472
16 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.403
17 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:10.438
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:10.632
19 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:10.711
20 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber No time
Lando Norris will line up in pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the Briton setting the pace in a fascinating Qualifying session that saw Max Verstappen make a shock Q1 exit.
While Oscar Piastri had bounced back from his earlier crash out of the Sprint to provisionally go quickest during the first runs of Q3, it was the other McLaren of Norris that went fastest of all in the final laps, pumping in a time of 1m 09.511s.
As was the case in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was the closest challenger in P2, the Italian’s effort 0.174s adrift of Norris’ time, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc put together a good session to take P3.
Piastri had to settle for fourth, while it was a positive day for Racing Bulls as Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson claimed fifth and seventh respectively. George Russell was sandwiched between them for Mercedes in sixth, with Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg completing the top 10.
One day on from exiting SQ2 in Sprint Qualifying, Lewis Hamilton again failed to reach the final segment of Qualifying this time around, the Ferrari driver having been unable to improve on P13.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the Williams of Alex Albon classified just ahead of the seven-time World Champion in 11th and 12th, with their respective team mates, Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz, following in 14th and 15th places.
The big news from Q1 was the exit of Verstappen, the Red Bull driver ending the session in P16 after struggling for grip, while team mate Yuki Tsunoda also made an early departure in P19.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-grabs-pole-position-in-sao-paulo-ahead-of-antonelli-and-leclerc-as.51zXqPIrqvKIKuvCL6CAgp
Max Verstappen has written off his chances of winning the 2025 Formula 1 world title after his shock Q1 elimination at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver qualified 16th at Interlagos after consistently struggling to get on top of his RB21, simply lacking pure pace all around having also suffered an oversteer at Turn 9.
It continued a tough day for Verstappen who finished fourth in the sprint race, which meant his deficit to championship leader Lando Norris rose to 39 points after the McLaren driver won from pole.
Norris again took pole in grand prix qualifying at Interlagos, very much ending the momentum Verstappen briefly built by winning four races in five before Mexico last time out – a contest also won by the Briton from pole.
So although Verstappen acknowledged he was in the fight against the McLaren pair – Norris and Oscar Piastri – after winning the United States GP, the Dutchman thinks that’s no longer the case.
“I can forget about that,” said Verstappen, when asked about his thoughts on the championship.
It was an answer which prompted the reporter to ask “really?”, to which the four-time world champion said: “Yes, for sure.”
“Where we are starting, that is not going to work,” he added. “And with these kind of performances, I mean, forget about it.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-admits-he-can-forget-about-f1-2025-title-after-brazil-gp-q1-exit/10775075/
Haas rookie Oliver Bearman discussed his lack of pace in Q3 in comparison to Q1 and Q2 during the Brazil Grand Prix qualifying session.
The British driver is set to start the race at Interlagos from eighth on the grid after initially looking as though he could secure a spot on the front two rows during Q1 and Q2.
“For me, the main difficulty was that I had a great feeling throughout Q1 and Q2, and it just wasn’t quite there in Q3,” he explained. “I saw a lot of people struggling, out of position on that soft tyre. It seemed to be a difficult tyre today.
“Maybe we were too hot with it in Q3 because I was doing slightly faster out-laps. Because honestly, the two laps I did in Q3, I was incredibly happy with and I crossed the line very happy, but I see two tenths slower on my delta compared to what I managed in Q2. So it was really strange.”
He added: “To be where we are is a great result. I think as much as we had great performance at the start of quali, I’m still happy with P8. I think the important thing would be to understand why it worked so well in Q1 and Q2 and what we missed in Q3.”
The 20-year-old considered that a lack of grip could have been an issue, which many of his rivals struggled with, including Max Verstappen.
“Could be. I mean, it could be too hot. I think that’s the thing that is pointing out for me right now because I had a few occasions in Turn 1 where I didn’t feel my tyres were quite ready.
“So I was trying to do faster out-laps in Q3 were my hottest out-laps, I would say. So maybe that was working against me a little bit.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/oliver-bearman-puzzled-by-q3-dip-after-strong-brazil-gp-qualifying-start/10775083/
Lando Norris pulled through at the final opportunity to seize pole position from his rivals in a closely-fought Qualifying in Sao Paulo, admitting that Sunday’s Grand Prix will be a far greater challenge than his most recent victory in Mexico City.
The small margins separating the field meant that despite his Sprint pole position and win earlier in the weekend, it was far from certain that the McLaren driver would sail back to first place in Qualifying.
This came to fruition on the initial runs in Q3, when a lock-up saw Norris resigned to P10 on the timesheets, leaving him with a single shot to beat the likes of Ollie Bearman and Oscar Piastri at the top of the provisional order.
His final lap proved to be enough and he finished the hour over a tenth ahead of his nearest challenger Kimi Antonelli, replicating the front row from the Sprint, but the intense competition has left the Briton predicting a complex Grand Prix.
Prompted on whether he would enjoy another race like the Mexico Grand Prix, in which he took a lights-to-flag victory 30 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, he replied that he is expecting “the opposite of Mexico”.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as simple,” he said. “Like we saw this morning, the Mercedes is very quick. They showed again now that they’re very quick so I’m not getting overly excited. I think we have a lot of work to do tonight to make sure they stay away from us.”
Alluding to his Sprint battle with Antonelli, Norris also said: “I learned that Kimi pushes all the way to the very end. In some ways I’m looking forward to it, and in some ways I’m not.
“I think it’s going to be a big challenge tomorrow. We need to see what the weather’s going to do again. So far, this weekend has been clean so I’m hoping they don’t ruin it!”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-predicts-the-opposite-of-mexico-after-unnecessary-pressure-in-sao.41h0w9HJoIVbmLCKp0Ydoc