Formula 1 News: Norris wins pole in wet São Paulo GP Qualifying

Driving his superior McLaren-Mercedes on a very wet Interlagos Circuit and with drivers spinning and crashing every few minutes, Lando Norris turned a lap of 1m23.405s to win the pole for the 2024 São Paulo Brazil GP.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

After qualifying rained out on Saturday, it was a  fifth pole in seven races and 8th of his F1 career, Norris improved on both efforts to grab pole by nearly two tenths.

“There was a lot going on today, but super, super happy,” said Norris.  “I was struggling a lot at the beginning so to end up on pole… I worked on it a lot. A little surprised again to be on pole, but some nice laps. I felt good at the end and a good result for us.

“You are always trying to find that next little bit but you saw people going off and crashing, that risk – reward was not easy today. So it is a relief.”

Mercedes driver George Russell was 2nd, 0.173s behind Norris. “São Paulo has great memories from a few years ago. Really pleased to be lining up P2. I loved this, reminded me of the karting days – waking up and eating breakfast in your race suit before going out and driving. So impressed with all the fans that were lined up at 6:00am to get into the track.”

Yuki Tsunoda was third in the RB, 0.706s behind Norris. “Very tricky but I enjoyed it. We had good pace straight away, a couple of mistakes but some luck as well and with Liam, a good result for the team.

“This track is one of the trickiest tracks, you can build confidence and start to push but you’ll have a big consequence like we saw with some of the others. I had one big moment but yeah…”

Esteban Ocon was 4th for Alpine, 1.070s behind Norris while Liam Lawson rounded out the top-5 for RB, 1.709s behind Norris

Oscar Piastri didn’t get a lap time in when the track was at its best, and had to settle for eighth – ahead of the Aston Martins but behind Alex Albon.

Max Verstappen was knocked out in Q2 when Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll stuffed his car into the barrier and the pro-Lando Norris officials made sure they made the track go red before Verstappen could complete his lap on Intermediate tires.

What was really frustrating for Verstappen is the fact he was easily the fastest on the full wet tires, but never got a chance to set a fast time on the Intermediates when the track was dry enough for them.

Another surprise was Lewis Hamilton being knocked out in Q1.

Alex Albon, 2nd quickest 0.499s behind Norris at the time, seriously damaged his Williams after smacking the Turn 1 barriers hard and destroying the left front and the entire back of his Williams.  The car cannot be repaired in time for the race. Only 19 cars will start the race.

Franco Colapinto also wadded up his Williams in Q1, giving the team much work to do before the race.

The same could be said for Aston Martin, who also have two cars to repair after Stroll and Fernando Alonso both found the barriers.

Norris has done everything he can to ensure a big haul of points. While Verstappen is down the order – he qualified 12th, but has a five-place grid penalty.

He isn’t impressed one bit, but quite often can use frustration to fire a great recovery drive.

And he is a very good driver in the wet, and it also remains to be seen if 20 cars even take to the start later on.

2024 Sao Paulo Brazil GP Qualifying Results