Lando Norris scored pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and Kimi Antonelli set a final fast lap for second, mirroring the Sprint’s front row.
Norris stalled at Turn 1 on his first lap of Q3, losing almost a second and leaving him in 10th place, but his second run produced a personal best in the first sector, followed by best session times in the second and third sectors and a lap time of 1.09.511 minutes.
Mercedes’ Antonelli was 0.174 seconds behind on his final lap, taking over from Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who will join Norris’ McLaren teammate and leading championship contender Oscar Piastri on the second row. The Australian set a personal best in the first sector on his final lap, but was 0.282 seconds behind in the second as he failed to make a dent in Norris’ lead.
Isack Hadjar put in a fine performance to qualify fifth, with George Russell splitting the Racing Bulls in sixth, ahead of Liam Lawson.
Haas’ Oliver Bearman was third in Q1 and second in Q2, but was unable to continue that form in the latter part of qualifying. He finished eighth despite keeping two new sets of soft tires aside for the session.
Pierre Gasly started qualifying strongly for Alpine, taking second in Q1, but eventually finished ninth, with Nico Hulkenberg tenth for Sauber as he reached Q3 for the first time this season – the first since Abu Dhabi 2024, where he qualified seventh.
The unusual top 10 was the result of big losses earlier in qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen failing to reach Q3 for the second time in the time they raced together. Coincidentally, the only other time was the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last year.
Hamilton struggled for rear grip in his Ferrari and could only post the 13th fastest time in Q2, behind Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon. Their respective Aston Martin and Williams teammates Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz also failed to progress from Q2.
Verstappen was also dissatisfied with his car’s grip, despite a significant change to the set-up prior to qualifying, which resolved the bouncing he complained about, but also introduced other problems. After two cooling laps before his final push, he lost time in the first and last sectors, although he did set a personal best in the second.
It was the first time in his career that Verstappen failed to get out of Q1 on pure pace, and the first time he got out of that phase at all since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, where he failed to set a lap time after taking power unit penalties.
Verstappen was 16th in Q1, ahead of Franco Colapinto – who took a new chassis and gearbox for his Alpine after his crash in the Sprint earlier in the day – and teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
It was the first time Red Bull had suffered a double Q1 result since the 2006 Japanese GP, where David Coulthard and Robert Doornbos qualified 17th and 18th respectively, in the team’s second season in F1 before it had won a single race or championship title.
While he was able to get into the car before the end of the session, Gabriel Bortoleto failed to get on track in Q1 after a massive rebuild of his Sauber following his huge crash at the end of the sprint. This was despite a brief delay in starting qualifying due to barrier repairs that took place after the supporting Porsche Supercup race that preceded it.
RESULTS
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