Piastri takes surprising sprint pole in Brazil

Oscar Piastri beat his McLaren teammate Lando Norris to take pole position for the sprint race at Interlagos, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

The McLaren drivers dominated sprint 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 P13 and Oliver Bearman again impressing 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 dropping.

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 went to the top with a lap time of one minute, 08.928 seconds with his first run, with Piastri trailing him before they quickly returned to the pits before having another attempt on the same set of softs.

Piastri used his second attempt to head Norris by 0.029 seconds with a lap time of one minute, 08.899 seconds, with Norris abandoning his second go after producing a poor middle sector compared to his first attempt.

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

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

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 Norris was 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-attempt 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.

So a surprising pole for Oscar Piastri to jump his McLaren teammate to take the top spot in sprint qualifying. The sprint race is going to be fascinating as the two title contenders are in the top four.

Sao Paulo Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:08.899
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:08.928
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:09.153
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:09.219
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:09.257
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:09.443
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:09.622
8 Liam Lawson RB 1:09.941
9 Alexander Albon Williams 1.10.078
10 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:09.629
11 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:09.941
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:09.964
13 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:10.024
14 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:10.275
15 Valtteri Bottas Haas 1:10.595
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:10.978
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.052
18 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:11.121
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:11.280
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:12.978

5 thoughts to “Piastri takes surprising sprint pole in Brazil”

  1. Oscar Piastri has surged to an impressive pole position for the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the McLaren driver beating team mate Lando Norris in the final moments to take the accolade by just two hundredths of a second.

    Norris had led the way throughout SQ1 and SQ2, setting the pace by some way from his rivals. The Briton again looked to be on provisional pole following the opening runs of SQ3 – but Piastri pipped him to P1 by setting a lap of 1m 08.899s, putting him only 0.029s clear of Norris.

    Charles Leclerc slotted his Ferrari in third, ahead of Max Verstappen – who will be hoping to continue his consecutive run of Sprint victories – in fourth for Red Bull while Carlos Sainz was fifth in the Scuderia’s other car.

    George Russell took P6 for Mercedes, with Pierre Gasly a solid P7 in the Alpine and Liam Lawson P8 for RB. Williams’ Alex Albon also had a good outing by taking P9, while Haas substitute Ollie Bearman rounded out the top 10, the youngster not setting a time in SQ3 after his lap was deleted due to track limits.

    https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-beats-norris-to-stunning-sprint-qualifying-pole-in-sao-paulo-by-0.6tXPyiFnl3l72C1GI2ygsk

  2. Max Verstappen is set to face a five-place grid drop at the upcoming Sao Paulo Grand Prix after Red Bull elected to change his power unit for the sixth time this season.

    After the Dutchman struggled for pace last time out in Mexico, he will be hoping to take a step forward and close the gap to rivals Ferrari and McLaren with a new internal combustion engine (ICE) this weekend.

    With just four rounds remaining, the Brazilian circuit could offer the best overtaking opportunities to limit the damage brought about by the grid penalty, which will only affect the Grand Prix as opposed to the Sprint.

    Each season, drivers are permitted to use four internal combustion engines – Verstappen exceeded this allocation previously in Belgium, where he served a 10-place grid penalty. As this is his second infringement, the consequence is a five-place drop.

    A document published by the FIA also confirmed that the reigning world champion will use a new exhaust system, but will not incur a penalty for this as he is still within the allocation of eight.

    The FIA stated: “The internal combustion engine used by Max Verstappen will be the sixth (6th) of the four (4) new internal combustion engines allowed for the 2024 Championship season and this is not in conformity with Article 28.2 of the 2024 Formula One Sporting Regulations.”

    https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-set-for-sao-paulo-gp-grid-penalty-after-power-unit.1UO38Pf26ToUv6uVqYu7bB

  3. Oscar Piastri says he would be willing to give up a potential victory in the sprint race of Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix to help McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the championship, despite getting pole position in sprint qualifying on Friday.

    Norris trails title favourite Max Verstappen by 47 points after taking 10 out of the Dutchman’s lead in Mexico, and the Briton will have to increase the rate of points he is gaining if he is to overhaul the Red Bull driver by Abu Dhabi’s season finale.

    McLaren decided at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to support Norris in his title bid, with Piastri expected to help his team-mate if the situation called for it. At the time McLaren said Norris wouldn’t be asked to sacrifice grand prix victories for Norris. But the Australian says he wouldn’t have a problem with handing Norris a less important sprint win, with a one-point difference between each position in the top eight.

    “We’ll see what the pace is like tomorrow for both of us,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1. “I think first and second is the first objective, and then we’ll see what the order it is.

    “I know Lando is in the running for the drivers’ standings, and for the team it doesn’t matter which way around we are.”

    Asked if he would give away a victory, he replied: “Yes, I’ve said I would when we had these discussions. It would be nice to win, but it’s a one-point difference and it’s not the main race, so we’ll see.

    “Lando needs the points in the driver standings a lot more than I do. Of course, I still want to win, so I put in the effort and have good pace that I’m sure that won’t go unnoticed.”

    https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/piastri-ready-norris-win-brazil-sprint/10669328/

  4. Charles Leclerc says he and Ferrari can be happy with maximising their potential during Sprint Qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but remains wary of McLaren’s level of performance.

    McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for Saturday’s Sprint at Interlagos, with Oscar Piastri beating Lando Norris to top spot in Sprint Qualifying 3, after Norris had led the way during Free Practice 1, SQ1 and SQ2.

    Leclerc wound up as best of the rest, two tenths of a second behind Piastri, and ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

    “I’m happy because we have maximised the result for today, I don’t think anything was there to do better today,” Leclerc said.

    “The McLarens are so fast so we are a little bit on the backfoot this weekend and it will be important to take strong points anyway,” added Leclerc.

    Pressed on whether he felt McLaren were out of reach for the remainder of the Sao Paulo weekend, Leclerc replied: “I don’t like saying it like this so early on in the weekend, so we’ll give it everything to put the challenge on them.

    “But seeing the pace they’ve shown today, I think they were particularly strong.”

    https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/the-mclarens-are-so-fast-leclerc-shocked-by-rivals-pace-after-taking-p3-in.o0eDnn9tDqrQN3dV2SWzc

  5. Kevin Magnussen will sit out the entire Brazilian Grand Prix weekend due to illness, with reserve driver Oliver Bearman remaining in the car until Sunday.

    On Friday morning Haas announced that Magnussen would have to sit out the Friday running after being taken ill, and that he would be replaced by Bearman for free practice and sprint qualifying. That also meant Bearman would stay in the car for Saturday morning’s sprint.

    But in a further update Haas has now confirmed that Magnussen won’t be in the car at all this weekend, with Bearman also taking part in Saturday qualifying and Sunday’s grand prix.

    “Haas F1 Team can confirm that Kevin Magnussen will not compete in the São Paulo Grand Prix and Oliver Bearman will race for the team for the remainder of the weekend,” the team shared in a statement, with Motorsport.com understanding Magnussen’s symptoms are nausea-related.

    Bearman acquitted himself well on Friday in his first-ever visit to Sao Paulo’s Interlagos circuit, taking third in free practice before advancing to the top 10 in sprint qualifying.

    The Briton was on course for eighth place on the grid, but saw his SQ3 laptime deleted for exceeding track limits and will line up in 10th, ahead of experienced team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in 12th.

    https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/magnussen-out-brazilian-gp-bearman-gets-full-race-weekend/10669377/

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