Lando Norris Prevails In Wild Brazil Qualifying Session

A wet and wild Sunday morning qualifying session in Sao Paulo ended with massive implications in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.

Lando Norris ended up as the pole-sitter. George Russell qualified second and, in a big surprise, Yuki Tsunoda ended up in third.

After four other red flags for separate incidents in a chaotic sessions, the fifth set the stage for one final push. Alexander Albon hit the wall in turn 1 and utterly destroyed his Williams with three-and-a-half minutes remaining in Q3. It was a horrible way to end qualifying for Albon, who was second at the time on the board.

Norris’ pole came as Max Verstappen qualified 12th, with a five place grid penalty relegating him to 17th. But with the number of wrecks in the session, the grid will be in flux until just before the start of the race.

“Eyes forward,” Norris said in the podium interviews after being asked about looking for the win or a big points day. “I’ve got some quick guys behind. George put in a nice lap, Yuki’s been flying in the wet all day.

“It’s never easy in these conditions, it’s never about settling down and getting on with it. It’s what I’d like to do. … We’ll see. If we can get a race in, that’s a start.”

Tsunoda capped off a great session for RB, with Liam Lawson also taking fifth. With the Haas drivers out in Q1, RB stands to make a big gain in their constructors’ standings battle with the American team.

“We are slightly behind P6 [in points], Haas” Tsunoda said in the podium interviews. “We need catching up. This is the moment that, we want to maximize opportunity.

“As a team, we did as much as we can to score as much as possible.”

Q3

As he had wrecked out of qualifying in the previous round, Lance Stroll did not attempt a lap in this round.

There was further bad news for Aston Martin in this round, as Fernando Alonso wrecked out of qualifying with seven minutes remaining in this round.

The car spun out and wedged itself directly in the wall, causing another red flag in a qualifying full of them.

Pos.	Driver No.	Driver	Team	Time from Leader
1.	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Mercedes	1:23:405m
2.	63	George Russell	Mercedes	+0.173s
3.	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB Honda RBPT	+0.706s
4.	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine Renault	+1.070s
5.	30	Liam Lawson	RB Honda RBPT	+1.079s
6.	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+1.120s
7.	23	Alexander Albon	Williams Mercedes	+1.252s
8.	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren Mercedes	+1.281s
9.	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	+4.312s
10.	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	N/A

Q2

Midway through this round, a run on intermediates by Piastri that was over a second faster than the full-wet runners precipitated the change-over to those green sidewall tires for the rest of the field.

With a little under six minutes remaining in the session, Carlos Sainz suffered a big spin into the wall in turn 1. His rear wing was destroyed and there seemed to be a lot of damage to the rear end of the car. Ferrari is going to be doing everything to get their driver back out for the race in just a handful of hours.

With 46 seconds remaining in the session, Stroll spun out in turn 3 and hit the wall, heavily damaging his Aston Martin and ending the session.

Pos.	Driver No.	Driver	Team	Time from Advancing
11.	77	Valtteri Bottas	KICK Sauber Ferrari	+0.008s
12.	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	+1.319s
13.	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	+1.694s
14.	55	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+2.942s
15.	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine Renault	+3.150s

Q1

With a little under nine minutes to go in this round, Franco Colapinto wrecked out of this session in turn 3.

His Williams didn’t seem to have much damage, but the team is going to have a very quick turnaround if the lone South American driver on the grid will start his home race.

The track was extremely tricky for drivers with heavy wet conditions. Norris was very close to being eliminated, ultimately being just a couple of tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton.

Pos.	Driver No.	Driver	Team	Time from Advancing
16.	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+0.206s
17.	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas Ferrari	+0.285s
18.	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams Mercedes	+0.326s
19.	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas Ferrari	+0.679s
20.	24	Zhou Guanyu	KICK Sauber Ferrari	+1.319s

We have an expedited F1 weekend, as FOM and the FIA fight the weather. Lights out for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix will now come at 10:30 am EST later today, Sunday November 3rd. Coverage will be on ESPNU, ESPN3, and ESPN+, with ESPN2 joining the race in-progress following the New York City Marathon.