Oscar Piastri will start Saturday’s Sprint Race at Brazil from Pole, with teammate Lando Norris behind.
The Sprint Qualifying is the session that defines Saturday’s Sprint Race starting grid, with three sessions from 12 to 8 minutes.
Cloudy conditions allowed track temperatures to cool down. During Practice 1, they reached up to 56 degrees Celsius, but this time we saw temps in the 40 degrees.
Tight times and menacing weather meant all drivers went out to the track as soon as the session began.
SQ1
Lando Norris topped the timing charts in SQ1 with a 1:09.477s, the only driver to get past the 1:10s mark. His teammate Oscar Piastri followed by 0.788s and William’s Alexander Albon in third by 0.889s.
Albon’s teammate, Franco Colapinto, missed the elimination zone as he crossed the finish line in the last two seconds, and was able to set a flying lap that placed him 9th and allowed him through SQ2.
The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was 4th (+0.911s) while teammate Carlos Sainz 11th (+1.026s), all with the Medium compound tires, although timings in this first part of the sessions are never completely representative. The Red Bulls were further back.
Those eliminated were Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Guanyu Zou, whose teammate Valtteri Bottas just made it to SQ2 with the 15th fastest time.
SQ2
Temperatures kept cooling down and wind gusts got stronger for SQ2, with rain getting closer and closer to the track.
Things at the top didn’t change much this time around as it was a McLaren 1-2 again, with Norris on top. This time around he got closer to the 1:08s, by just 0.063s. Piastri was behind by just a tenth and a half.
Max Verstappen improved and approached further to the leaders, placing the 4th fastest time behind Leclerc. Sainz P5 by 0.437s to the top.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was having an impressive run and finished SQ2 in P6, ahead of rookie Oliver Bearman and Mercedes’s George Russell – the only Silver Arrow to make it to SQ3. Lawson and Albon followed.
Those eliminated were Hamilton, by just 0.097s to the Williams in P10, Hulkenberg, Pérez -who didn’t have enough time to set a flying lap on his final run-, Colapinto and Bottas.
SQ3
Oscar Piastri topped SQ3 ahead of teammate Norris by just 0.029 seconds! Charles Leclerc completed the top three, as he had done since the start of the session.
Verstappen will start Brazil’s Sprint Race from fourth, and Sainz will follow behind alongside Russell.
Gasly maintain his good performance and will start seventh, ahead of Lawson.
The final row on the grid will be completed by Alexander Albon and Oliver Bearman, whose’s time was deleted for track limits.
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