Formula 1: Norris takes pole amid drama-filled qualifying

Saturday’s postponed qualifying proved to be hugely exciting as Lando Norris took pole from George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda in a massively disrupted and drama-filled session this morning. With five red-flags and shock eliminations a plenty, the changing weather conditions proved to be a true wild card as multiple heavy crashes disrupted the session as Lando Norris prevailed for pole for the seventh time in 2024.

HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the action from a chaotic qualifying at Interlagos as Norris leads Russell and Tsunoda after multiple red flags

Q1 Results:

Qualifying kicked off Sunday morning at 07:30 local time after torrential rain on Saturday prevented teams from qualifying after the Sprint Shootout. As fans waited for the green lights to start the session, a queue soon formed in the pit lane with all drivers on full wet tires as they emerged on track. It wasn’t long though until the yellow flag soon flew as Liam Lawson took an excursion off track in turn 12 before being joined by Zhou and Lance Stroll.

Halfway through the session, Valtteri Bottas  was first to put on the intermediate tires as Ocon went quickest ahead of Fernando Alonso as the normal front runners found themselves mixed into the mid-field teams. Soon after, Yuki Tsunoda put himself on the top of the time sheets before Franco Colapinto brought out the first of the red flags, having binned his Williams into the barriers in turn 3.

The session resumed with eight minutes remaining after marshals recovered Colapinto’s Williams as rain intensified on the circuit, the changing conditions making it more difficult for drivers to improve their times. However, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton proved it was possible, through the Mercedes driver found himself quickly back in trouble as he was only able to push to 14th quickest, leaving him at risk to drop into the bottom five. Lando Norris was similarly in a tricky position having had a lap time deleted, leaving him 15th, however, a clean lap but the McLaren driver pushed himself out of the danger zone and demoted Hamilton into the drop zone.

Unable to improve, Hamilton was the first shock retirement of the morning, ending sixteenth ahead of the Haas of Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto – eighteenth despite his early crash – Nico Hulkenberg, and Zhou Guanyu.

Drivers out in Q1:

• 16th: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• 17th: Oliver Bearman (Haas)
• 18th: Franco Colapinto (Williams)
• 19th: Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
• 20th: Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber)

Q2 Results:

With the rain easing back off for the start of Q2, Oscar Piastri was the first of the drivers to try the intermediate tires as he set the third quickest time amongst the other wet-weather clad cars. Seeing the pace improve for the McLaren, others soon equipped their cars with the green sidewall tires as the tricky conditions continued to catch drivers out, with George Russell dealing with his own spin on track. Carlos Sainz soon became the next red-flag victim as his Ferrari went off in turn 2 and into the barriers.

As marshals gathers the remains of the damaged Ferrari, teams regrouped as once again Norris found himself in the drop zone but soon pulled the McLaren up to third once the session resumed with five minutes remaining.

As the time ticked down, red flags flew once again, this time for the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll as he crashed on track, leaving Red Bull in a worst-case scenario with both drivers out at the end of the session as they had no time to improve their lap times. With Verstappen’s penalty for Sunday, his original twelfth place spot would become seventeenth on Sunday as Sergio Perez finished thirteenth.

Drivers out in Q2:

• 11th: Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber)
• 12th: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 13th: Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
• 14th: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
• 15th: Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

Q3 Results:

Once again, the changing weather conditions led the way at the start of Q3, with the rain beginning to pick up once again, as drivers queued at the end of pit lane in anticipation of the final ten minutes of qualifying. The unusual nature of the end of Q2 saw only nine cars start the session, as Lance Stroll had made it through despite his accident in Q2.

It was advantage to Norris when the session went green before suddenly for the forth time, red flags flew on circuit as Fernando Alonso slammed into the barriers with only seven minutes remaining on the clock, sending the track marshals back to work once again.

With the track green again after the clean up, George Russell took to the circuit first as everyone looked to improve their times, but progress was short lived with the red flags flew for the fifth and final time for the Williams of Alex Albon with roughly three minutes remaining in the session. Though heavily damaged, Albon emerged unharmed as the session ground to a halt, a very rough day for the Williams team as now both cars would need extensive work to be prepared for the late-morning race start.

the track once again went green with three minutes remaining, enough time for one flying lap for the remaining seven drivers as Lando Norris went quickest ahead of Russell, who was only 0.173s off his fellow countryman’s time. RB had the perfect weekend with third and fifth for for Tsunoda and Lawson as the Alpine of Esteban Ocon sandwiched himself between the pair. Charles LeClerc was the sole Ferrari in sixth, as Alex Albon, Oscar Piastri, and the Aston Mrtin duo of Alonso and Stroll finished out the top 10.

With the quick turnaround for the race, pushed up two hours to account for pending heavy weather, teams will be on a very quick schedule to have cars ready in time. Tune in live at 09:30 local time to catch the action live in Brazil.

Hamilton delights the Interlagos crowd with demo run in Senna’s title-winning McLaren

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Qualifying Results: