Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton both suffered disasters in a rare Sunday morning qualifying session before the Brazilian Grand Prix, as Lando Norris took pole position.
George Russell joined Norris on the front row, while Yuki Tsunoda secured his best-ever qualifying position in third, Liam Lawson also repeated that achievement in fifth.
Qualifying was red-flagged and stopped on no less than five occasions, the first came after Franco Colapinto spun into the barriers, fortunately the Argentine confirmed that he was “OK” over the team radio.
Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon also crashed in Q2 as fears spread throughout the paddock over whether several cars would be ready in time for the race.
Both Mercedes were left in the drop zone, though, as heavy rain continued to descend on Sao Paulo. The session had already been postponed from the previous day, as weather continued to cause havoc in South America.
Those woes continued for Hamilton as he went out in Q1, blasting “this damn car” as he finished 16th, narrowly pipped by Norris who finished one place higher.
Both Haas cars, who have been in such good form as of late, also joined Hamilton in exiting in Q1 alongside Colapinto and Zhou Guanyu.
Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty for today’s race, having put a new engine into his Red Bull vehicle. He will start from 17th later this afternoon.
Verstappen was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Stroll in front of him crashed, but the three-time world champion blasted the “stupid” and “ridiculous” decision to wait over 30 seconds for a red flag to be deployed.
“The car hits the wall, it needs to be a straight red,” he told Sky Sports F1. “I don’t understand why it needs to take 30, 40 seconds for a red flag to come out. It’s just bullshit.”
Red Bull had accused McLaren of illegally injecting water into their tyres to cool them on Saturday night, but while the FIA investigate, Zak Brown’s team have a huge advantage as Norris looks to usurp Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
Oscar Piastri went fastest in Q2 as the first driver to move to the intermediate tyres, as his rivals all soon followed, before Sainz became the second driver of the day to crash – ending his session.
The Ferrari mechanics have a lot of work to do in order to get that car ready for this afternoon’s race. Any break planned for the Aston Martin team will have been cancelled also, with both of their drivers crashing out of the session. Albon’s Williams will likely be among the many who start from the pit lane.
But for Norris and McLaren, they have a golden opportunity to chip away at Verstappen’s lead after the defending champion’s unfortunate qualifying run.
