Verstappen wins pole for Brazilian GP

Max Verstappen wins his 2nd ever F1 pole

Red Bull Honda ace Max Verstappen put up a lap of 1.07.508s to win pole position for the Brazilian GP, the 2nd pole of his F1 career. Lacking downforce in the slow middle sector, Sebastian Vettel could only muster the 2nd quick time for Ferrari, 0.123s down on the Dutchman. Lewis Hamilton made a big step in his final run, stealing third from the 2nd Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd Mercedes.

"The track temperature was changing a bit so we had to adjust, but straight from Q1 the car was flying and very enjoyable to drive," said the Dutchman. "I'll try to finish it off now."

"It's his pole position, I'm happy with front row," said Vettel.

"Let's see what we can do tomorrow – hopefully we can keep the momentum going into the race. Both Red Bull and Mercedes look stronger managing tires, so it will be difficult."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Hamilton did seem genuinely pleased with third – which given the start of the session, when Mercedes suddenly looked third-best by a distance, wasn't a bad result. The good news for the team is that the Silver Arrows had the best race pace based on yesterday's longer runs, so could be a handful for Verstappen tomorrow, while the Ferraris will likely be trounced.

"We seemed competitive in FP3, then we seemed to lose – or they gained," said Hamilton. "Happy to split the Ferraris, I gave it everything I had. My best lap of the session was my final run. The track is very challenging."

Alexander Albon, who has been retained by Red Bull for 2020, was nearly half a second slower than teammate Verstappen as he took sixth, ahead of the man he replaced at Red Bull, Pierre Gasly, who continued his recent strong form by sealing best of the rest in seventh place for Toro Rosso.

There was an improved showing from Haas in Brazil as the team got both its cars into Q3 for the first time since May’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Romain Grosjean was 1.3s off the pace in eighth, a tenth clear of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and teammate Kevin Magnussen, who completed the top 10.

Lando Norris was just 0.011s shy of progressing into Q3 as neither McLaren driver managed to make it into the final segment of qualifying.

Vettel admits Ferrari has little chance on Sunday

Daniel Ricciardo was marginally quicker than Antonio Giovinazzi, who spun in the middle sector as he failed to join his Alfa Romeo teammate in the top-10 shootout with the 13th-best time.

The second Renault of Nico Hulkenberg – a polesitter in Brazil in 2010 – was just 0.002s adrift of Giovinazzi in 14th, with Sergio Perez a tenth behind in the lead Racing Point.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was left to rue a small error at the final corner as he ended up missing out on Q2 by less than half a tenth in 16th, ahead of Lance Stroll’s Racing Point, who was a further two tenths behind.

Intra-team honors at Williams once again went George Russell’s way as he maintained his qualifying supremacy over Robert Kubica, this time outpacing the 34-year-old Pole by half a second on his way to 18th.

Carlos Sainz Jr. will start at the back of the grid after a disastrous Q1, with an engine issue preventing him from setting a time. The Spaniard reported a power drop out as his McLaren suddenly slowed coming up the hill out of Juncao, before returning to the pits.

Quotes

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport

Hamilton happy with his speed

Lewis Hamilton (3rd, 1:07.699): "It was a challenging Qualifying session. We went in knowing that it was going to be very tight, but in the end we didn't have the pace to be on pole. FP3 was really strong for us, but once we got to Qualifying both Ferrari and Red Bull had great pace and we were losing out on the straights by quite a chunk. I kept chipping away at it and I think the last lap was as good as it could get for us, I don't think there was any juice left in the car. I'm happy I got myself into the top three, that makes it a much better challenge for me position-wise to fight for a win. Our long run pace looked strong on Friday, it's been one of our strengths throughout the year. It's going to be really hard for everyone tomorrow with track temperatures potentially reaching up to 50 degrees which we've not seen all weekend. I've been conscious of that with my set-up, so hopefully that works well tomorrow."

Valtteri Bottas (5th, 1:07.874): "It was pretty close, as it always is here in Brazil, but something was missing today. I had a tricky FP3 and was quite a bit behind, but I was getting closer and closer in Qualifying. However, in Q3, it just felt like I couldn't get much more out of the car. My laps in Q3 actually felt pretty good, there were maybe a few hundreds left to extract from the car, but not enough to challenge for pole today. I'll still start the race from the second row, so it will be interesting to see what I can do from there. We have a good race car, but the Red Bull looked very strong in the long runs as well, so I'm sure it's going to be an exciting race tomorrow. Everything is still to play for, so we'll keep upbeat and look forward to a good fight."

James Allison, Technical Director: "This result is a bit deflating, those aren't grid positions that we would be happy with. It's not completely out of line with what we saw yesterday, but we expected a little more after the decent results in FP3 this morning. But we didn't reproduce that form in Qualifying. We've still got good enough grid positions that we've got a fighting chance of a good race tomorrow, where the track conditions will change a lot again. It's going to be warm and this is not an easy track for the tires, so we can expect an interesting race with people looking after those tires, trying to make a decision between one and two stops. We were just shading the others on race pace in the long runs on Friday, but that was on a pretty cool track with a pretty manky overhead, so it is not a great indicator of what's going to happen tomorrow."

Scuderia Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel (2nd, 1:07.631): “Max put in a strong lap and so we can be happy with a front row start. I think our performance matched our expectations and it is good that our lap time was reasonably close. It puts us in a good position for tomorrow. We improved the car, it felt better and it was coming alive in quali, I am reasonably optimistic that we are in good shape for the race, but we will have to wait and see. It is supposed to be a bit warmer and it will be important to look after the tires and to make the right strategy calls. It will also be key to get a good start. The weather is unpredictable here in Interlagos, there could be sunshine but it might rain. 71 laps means it’s a long race and I think it will be fun."

Leclerc no match for Vettel again

Charles Leclerc (4th, 1:07.728): “It was not the best qualifying. The team gave me a great car and I believe that the potential was there for us to take pole today. I am disappointed about the mistake I made on the last corner of my first lap in Q3, because I lost about three tenths there. It doesn’t change too much though because I will be starting from the midfield tomorrow due to the grid penalty we have received. We completed some high fuel runs this morning to work on our race pace, as this is where we have the most room for improvement. We will do our best to apply what we learned there tomorrow. It’s good that we qualified on the medium tires and I hope that we will be able to gain an advantage and pass some of the cars ahead. It won’t be an easy race and I will give the maximum to make up as many places as possible and hopefully fight for a podium."

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: “As usual here in Brazil, because of the very short lap length, qualifying was really close with very small gaps between the cars. Max deserved pole, but the group behind him is split by just a few tenths and hundredths. As for our performance, second and fourth is still a good result and Seb can have a good race starting from the front row. It’s shame Charles has to start further down the order tomorrow. At least he is on the Medium tires which suited him and that will be important in the first stint, because we expect that tire to perform more consistently and be less susceptible to the effects of temperature. He did a good lap, apart from a mistake in the final corner and but for that, I think he could have set the fastest time. We know anything can happen tomorrow and we will try and run a good race. The track is evolving a lot, given that this morning it was very different to yesterday. In qualifying, our drivers felt the car was working better than in FP3, when we concentrated on car balance to best manage tire degradation, but it’s hard to predict what might happen in the race."

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (1st, 1:07.508): "I'm very happy with pole here today and the car and engine were performing really strongly together. We made a few improvements overnight and even after FP3 we made some final touches to the car and it really came alive in qualifying. Straight away from Q1 the car was flying and even though Q3 was a little more tricky as the temperature increased the car still felt good. Going purple in the middle sector and to be on pole by over a tenth here is a strong performance for us and Honda. Normally we have a quick race car so hopefully that will be the same tomorrow and I really enjoy driving on this track. I'm expecting an exciting and hopefully an enjoyable race, so now we just have to finish it off tomorrow."

Alexander Albon (6th, 1:07.935): "All in all it wasn't a bad comeback coming into qualifying but I'm still chasing for that final bit. Yes, it's my first time here but I don't like that excuse, and I don't want to make excuses in general. I think it's quite a tricky track, with long corners and low speeds. It's very thermal sensitive so if you make a little mistake in one corner, you pay the price in the following four or five corners. Even in my second run I had a little snap into Turn 2 and then the tires are too hot for the rest of the lap. They're very fine margins here but it's fun. There aren't many tracks like this and I enjoy driving here, I just wanted to be a bit quicker today. Max did a great job and it was a good Saturday for the Team. Our race pace looks pretty good and with Charles' penalty we start P5 so we have every reason to be in the mix tomorrow."

Christian Horner, Sporting Director: "That was the perfect birthday present from Max today with pole position in São Paulo. This is a track where Mercedes have dominated qualifying for the last five years so it was a great performance. Max was quickest in every session of qualifying and it's also good to see Alex getting closer and closer to the pace as well. Pole position is all credit to the Team, they're doing a fantastic job and all praise to Honda as well at what is a power sensitive circuit, especially at this high altitude. It's a great effort all around and I think this result is all about teamwork. Tomorrow, it's important for us to get a good start as this is a track you can overtake at. We need to have a clean first lap, get our heads down and then do the best we can."

Renault Sport Formula One Team

Daniel Ricciardo (12th, 1:08.903): "It's been really close in the midfield this week and today was no exception. It's a short lap, not many corners, so everything has to go right. It wasn't perfect from us today but I like these battles and the fact that it is so close. I struggled a bit on the last run in Q2, our tires overheated a little bit, but that's the way it is. We would have liked Q3, but it's not a disaster and I'm excited for the race. We have a free choice of tires and I think there will be some opportunities in front of us to progress up the order and take some points."

Nico Hulkenberg (14th, 1:08.921): "The midfield is super tight, and we just couldn't extract enough pace today. It was nip and tuck and only a few hundredths would have seen us into Q3. It's a short lap here and my second run in Q2 was clean, but we just lacked that extra bit of pace which would have seen us comfortably through. It makes our life tough for tomorrow, but I'm somewhat optimistic as our race pace has been better recently. Coming from the back of the midfield and sitting in dirty air is never easy, but we'll fight and give it our all tomorrow."

Alan Permane, Sporting Director: "We knew this was going to be a tough circuit for us but there were just less than two tenths covering the entire midfield and we are at the end of it. If we found two tenths we could have been as high as seventh. We didn't have that pace today, so we paid the price, but we have 71 laps to put it right in the race tomorrow. Temperatures are forecast to be a lot hotter and our race pace and excellent tire management we've seen in the last couple of races means there is every chance to have a decent result here."

Nick Chester, Technical Director:

Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director:

Haas F1 Team

Romain Grosjean (8th, 1:08.854): "It was a brilliant job by the team. Having both cars in Q3 is unbelievable. Tomorrow might be a different day, but that doesn't matter, we'll take the pleasure from today. We didn't really get to show the speed we had in final practice. I had confidence that we might be around P11. Then obviously Q2 went really well, and Q3 wasn't too bad. We were only two-hundredths of a second off being best-of-the-rest. I'm happy for the team, it's a brilliant job from everyone."

Kevin Magnussen (10th, 1:09.037): "It's good to have both cars in Q3 again. It looks like we might have something to fight with this weekend, which is really good. There's nothing to be disappointed about from today. The circuit and conditions were right for our car. It's been very up-and-down all the way through the year, so it's not a surprise that we can do this. I'll be more surprised if we can finish it off tomorrow, we know we struggle a little bit with tire management in the race. We'll certainly be giving it our all though."

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "FP3 didn't look good on the timesheets but we knew what was possible today. I think in qualifying the whole team and the drivers did a great job to get everything out of the car. It was a fantastic execution of a qualifying session with some fantastic drives. It's good for the team, everyone's worked hard for this, and we never give up. We keep on fighting and today we've had a good result. Hopefully, tomorrow we can do something, for sure we'll be trying."

McLaren F1 Team

Lando Norris (11th, 1:08.868): "Not the best quali as I didn't make it through to Q3, which obviously we're always working towards. We've not been as strong here so far this weekend compared to recent races as the car doesn't seem to suit this track. Plus, the grid is super close. One-hundredth of a second and I would've been into Q3, which is a bit frustrating – but it shows small things count. We knew we would be tight and we just missed out."

Carlos Sainz (20th, No Time): "Big disappointment today. An issue with the engine during my first attempt in Q1 meant I couldn't even set a lap-time. We'll investigate what happened, but I'm obviously disappointed because it cost us a good shot at Q3 today. Another eventful Saturday this season where I'm not able to show our pace is frustrating, but these things happen and the race is tomorrow. It won't be easy to reach the points starting from the back of the grid, but we'll fight until the checkered flag and hopefully make a good recovery."

Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "After a series of good Saturdays, we experienced a very disappointing qualifying today. Unfortunately, we had to abort qualifying with Carlos due to a loss of engine power even before setting a timed lap in the first session. On Lando's side, it was just not enough by one-hundredth of a second to go through to Q3. Heads down now – we still need to investigate the failure on Carlos' car, before then switching our focus to tomorrow with the aim of fighting back."

Racing Point F1 Team

Sergio Perez (15th, 1:09.035): "It was very tight today and ultimately we didn't have the pace we needed to make the top ten. The margins were very close – as they always are here – but I think we will have a better race car tomorrow and hotter conditions should play to our advantage. Although it's disappointing to qualify in P15, I believe we can recover tomorrow and that we can aim for points."

Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll (17th, 1:09.536): "It's been a challenging weekend so far and I don't think our car characteristics are best suited to this track. Obviously we didn't get much running in yesterday [due to the wet weather] and today we are just at the wrong end of a very tight midfield. I think we should be stronger tomorrow and we expect the track temperatures to be much higher. Tire management is going to be important tomorrow and that could give us an opportunity. We just need to look through all the information tonight, work hard on the strategy and see what we can do tomorrow."

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer: "It's always a very close qualifying session here and unfortunately we ended up at the lower end of a pretty evenly-matched midfield battle. Sergio squeezed through to Q2 and will line up in P15 ahead of Lance in P17. We've struggled through the middle sector and on such a short lap it's difficult to recover the marginal time lost. I think we will be more competitive in race conditions and the higher temperatures expected tomorrow will definitely have an impact. There's plenty to play for in the race and we need to make our long-run pace count with a good strategy."

Alfa Romeo Racing

Kimi Raikkonen (9th, 1:08.984): "We can be happy with today's result. The margins in the midfield are very close and you can make up a lot of places with just a small difference, but we will take P9 and see what we can do in the race tomorrow. I still feel we have margin for improvement, there is a lot more we can achieve but in the end you always want more. It's hard to tell how the race will unfold but we will try to do a good job and bring home a good result on Sunday."

Antonio Giovinazzi (13th, 1:08.919): "I knew I had a chance to be in the top ten, so I pushed very hard on my last lap of Q3. Unfortunately I spun and ended up missing the cut for just 0.06s. It is what it is, we knew the margins would be very small on such a short track but we still have a good chance to get in the points tomorrow. I was pleased with our race pace yesterday and we can choose our starting tires, so hopefully we can make up a few places in the race."

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "We can be satisfied with today's work, but we cannot get too carried away. Sunday is when the points are given out and we have a lot of work ahead of us to maximize our starting position. We have done a good job today and our race pace looked positive in practice, so we can hope for a competitive race. We will do our homework tonight and come prepared to make the most of our opportunities tomorrow."

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda

Pierre Gasly (7th, 1:08.837): "I'm really happy with how Qualifying went today! I'd like to pass on a massive thanks to the team for giving me a competitive car. It feels like pole position for us today as P7 in the midfield is the best we can expect. We knew it was going to be a tight Qualifying, so it feels great to get my fourth Q3 in a row. I felt good in the car all weekend, now we need to stay focused for tomorrow and finish the job by scoring as many points as possible in the race."

Daniil Kvyat (16th, 1:09.320): "It's just a shame today. I was feeling really good in the car during FP3 this morning and I was positive going into Qualifying. Then in the afternoon, the car wasn't in the right balance window anymore. On the second run I made a couple of mistakes which didn't allow me to improve on my time, I'm not sure what happened, but I lost the rhythm and I couldn't put everything together. However, my race pace is generally strong, and even if P16 isn't ideal let's see what we can do tomorrow."

Claudio Balestri, Chief Engineer, Vehicle Performance: "Following an eventful Friday, we worked hard to prepare both cars for Saturday. This morning in FP3 we mainly focused on Quali, optimizing the car setup and tire preparation, and we showed some good lap times with both drivers. We went into Quali very well prepared but unfortunately, we were not able to get through to Q2 with Daniil, while with Pierre we extracted the maximum from our package, adapting the car to the changes in track conditions. We were able to be the 7th quickest car in Q3 and now, due to Charles' penalty, we'll start the race from P6, equaling our best grid position this year (Azerbaijan Grand Prix – KVY). We now need to do our best to maximize our opportunities to score points with both cars tomorrow, in what we expect to be a tight midfield battle."

Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda F1 Technical Director: "A brilliant result today! Max was competitive all weekend and took his and our second pole position of the season. Alex was also competitive to finish sixth on his first visit to this technically tricky track. Pierre Gasly ensured we have three Honda-powered cars in the top ten. Daniil was unlucky to make a small mistake and get no further than Q1, but his long run pace looks good, so everything is in place for us to have an excellent result tomorrow. It's worth noting this was Pierre's fourth consecutive top ten qualifying result. It will be a long race, over the 71 laps and we will now ensure we are as well prepared as possible in the hope of converting today's strong performance into another one tomorrow."

ROKiT Williams Racing

George Russell (18th, 1:10.126): "Qualifying was as we expected. The car felt pretty decent and it was good fun driving around this circuit. We are where we are, and we tried to make the most of it. It's always tricky when the track is improving so much with every lap. I was pretty pleased with my effort, however, there was a bit more time on the table."

Robert Kubica (19th, 1:10.614): "Today was a good day and the car felt fine, even after the disappointment of missing all of Friday. The track is challenging, nice to drive, although we did struggle with grip. We will try our best tomorrow, but, being realistic, it will be difficult. Spirits remain high with the boys, and with the team, so let's hope for some chances in the race."

Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: "The team worked incredibly hard last night to build a replacement chassis for Robert following his crash yesterday. The warmer conditions helped the tire performance today and we had clearly made some progress with the car since FP2. We continued the work in FP3 as we refined the set-up for qualifying. The track was still a little cooler than we were hoping for this afternoon and so tire preparation remained tricky. Nonetheless, both drivers did well and made the most of their opportunity in qualifying, but the car simply didn't have the pace to challenge Racing Point and Toro Rosso. Whilst conditions are expected to be a little different again tomorrow, this is unlikely to be enough to allow us to race the cars ahead on the grid."

Qualifying Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3	GAP	LAPS
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:08.242	1:07.503	1:07.508	0.000s	12
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:08.556	1:08.050	1:07.631	0.123s	15
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:08.614	1:08.088	1:07.699	0.191s	16
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:08.496	1:07.888	1:07.728	0.366s	20
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:08.545	1:08.232	1:07.874	0.427s	17
6	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:08.503	1:08.117	1:07.935	1.329s	14
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso Honda	1:08.909	1:08.770	1:08.837	1.346s	22
8	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:09.197	1:08.705	1:08.854	1.476s	16
9	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:09.276	1:08.858	1:08.984	1.529s	20
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:08.875	1:08.803	1:09.037	–	15
11	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:08.891	1:08.868	–	–	13
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:09.086	1:08.903	–	–	12
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:09.175	1:08.919	–	–	14
14	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:09.050	1:08.921	–	–	12
15	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point Bwt	1:09.288	1:09.035	–	–	14
16	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso Honda	1:09.320	–	–	–	10
17	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point Bwt	1:09.536	–	–	–	9
18	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:10.126	–	–	–	9
19	88	Robert Kubica	Williams Mercedes	1:10.614	–	–	–	9
RT	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	No Time	–	–	–	2