Formula 1 Qualifying in São Paulo: Norris Takes Pole

Lando Norris took pole for the São Paulo Grand Prix in Formula 1 in a qualifying session that was interrupted twice by rain. With the penalties for George Russell and Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli will start second, alongside Norris on the front row.

Photo By Mclaren

Interlagos greeted the drivers with rain that increased just before Q1. Race control stopped the session as soon as it began, when no one had yet set a valid time, and the wait lasted more than an hour and a half. When they returned, the asphalt was still soaked, and the teams had to fit extreme wet tires, with several reports of aquaplaning. That scenario made qualifying depend as much on choosing the right moment to go out as on the speed of each car.

Gabriel Bortoleto was one of the first to be affected. He lost control, hit the barriers, and damaged the rear of his Audi. Unable to return in competitive shape, he ended up last. Rafael Câmara, who was making his Grand Prix debut with Haas, advanced to Q2 despite an off-track excursion and a damaged front wing, but a crash in that round brought out another red flag and left him thirteenth.

In Q2, Russell was fastest on a track that was still wet. Oscar Piastri was twelfth and did not advance, so McLaren was left with only one car in the fight for pole. Lewis Hamilton also dropped out in that round, and Max Verstappen did not even go out on track. Both will start from the back due to power unit changes, so their elimination had little effect on the grid.

Photo By Mclaren

In Q3, Norris found the decisive lap on his final attempt. He had already taken that position in 2024 and 2025, and now adds a third in a row at the Brazilian circuit. Russell finished just two tenths back, but Mercedes asked him to abort his second fast attempt. The Briton felt he could still improve and expressed his disagreement over the radio, until the rain increased and the drivers returned to the pits.

The power unit change penalties completely reshuffle the grid. Russell will drop five positions and Leclerc ten, although the Monegasque had set the fourth-best time. Antonelli will start second and join Norris on the front row. Lawson, fifth on the track, will take third place.

For Mercedes, the weekend has two sides. The team holds a 126-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors' championship, which allows it to depend on its own results to close out that title. However, having held back Russell when he believed he had room to improve opens an internal discussion that could weigh heavily if the race gets complicated. The last time Mercedes won both championships was in 2020, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as drivers.

Photo By Mclaren

Antonelli arrives in Brazil as world champion since Mexico, with nine wins on the year. Hamilton reaches his 400th Grand Prix in São Paulo, a circuit where he has three victories, the same as Verstappen. A fourth victory at the track would match the record that Michael Schumacher holds at Interlagos.

Norris starts with the chance to control the race from the front. If the rain returns, tire choice and the timing of each stop will weigh as much as the qualifying lap, and that tests Mercedes and McLaren equally.

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	driver	team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:27.470	1:27.470	1:27.470
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:26.745	1:26.745	1:27.674
3	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:28.095	1:28.095	1:28.095
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:28.082	1:28.082	1:28.289
5	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	1:27.049	1:27.049	1:28.321
6	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	1:28.361	1:28.361	1:28.668
7	6	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	1:27.218	1:27.218	1:28.763
8	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	1:29.130	1:29.130	1:29.831
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:29.072	1:29.072	1:30.311
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:28.918	1:28.918	1:30.456
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:30.001
12	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:30.369	1:30.369
13	51	Rafael Câmara	Haas F1 Team	1:31.470	1:31.470
14	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	1:31.687
15	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	1:31.785
16	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:31.238
17	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	1:33.327
18	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:33.449
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:33.653
20	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	1:33.774
21	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	1:34.509
22	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	1:41.564