Brazilian Grand Prix: Oscar Piastri stuns Lando Norris for Sprint qualifying pole

Oscar Piastri earned pole position with an excellent last-gasp lap in Sprint qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on Friday.

His McLaren team-mate Lando Norris had dominated the majority of the session, but Piastri’s final lap in SQ3 put him ahead of his colleague at the crucial moment, with Charles Leclerc taking third and World Championship leader Max Verstappen set to line up fourth.

Oscar Piastri takes pole for Sao Paulo Sprint at Interlagos

As ever with Sprint qualifying, the sessions are shorter and tyres are mandated, with medium tyres only in the 12 minutes of SQ1 as the drivers went around an overcast Interlagos to start with.

The newly-resurfaced track was likely to ramp up quickly as the session progressed, too, with only one practice session having taken place on it beforehand in the day.

Both Aston Martin drivers were in the drop zone along with the Sauber duo towards the end of SQ1, with Franco Colapinto having not set a representative lap before the final flying runs, while Liam Lawson was in an impressive P5 at the other end, 0.014s ahead of Max Verstappen after his first run.

But with the clouds looming, the drivers took no chances in getting out early for their final runs, with Sergio Perez going marginally faster than team-mate Verstappen in SQ1, behind the McLaren of Piastri and Ferrari of Charles Leclerc – before Norris went fastest by over seven tenths of a second, laying down a gauntlet for the rest of the session.

At the other end, however, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu would be the first to fall out of contention.

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SQ2 started with more medium tyres on the cars, but with the clouds remaining dark over the track – albeit without rain having fallen – there was a queue to get out of the pit lane to get a representative time on the board.

A 1:09.063 from Norris was fastest once again from the McLaren driver – by a healthy margin to the rest of the field in the first part of the session, over four tenths ahead of the next-quickest driver in Verstappen.

Verstappen was marginally quicker than Norris in the first sector, but it was the twisting middle sector at Interlagos where Norris in his McLaren seemed to have the upper hand in the early part of the session.

But towards the end, the Haas of Oliver Bearman – standing in for the unwell Kevin Magnussen – put his car up through to SQ3 on his final flying lap but the Red Bull of Sergio Perez would fall out of Sprint qualifying, being told to pit as he would not get to start a final lap in time.

The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton would also fall at the SQ2 hurdle, going out in 11th place – a tenth shy of Williams’ Alex Albon and VCARB’s Liam Lawson also making it through.

Into SQ3, it was Norris who again set the benchmark with the first flying lap, dipping into the 1:08s for the first time for any driver, three tenths ahead of Piastri.

Bearman saw his effort deleted for a track limits infringement, but it was Piastri who pulled an excellent time out of the bag to get ahead of his team-mate at the last, a 1:08.899 to put himself 0.029s ahead of Norris at the close.

A shock result given the direction of traffic throughout the session, but it marks an all-McLaren front row for the Sprint at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Brazilian Grand Prix 2024: Sprint qualifying classification

1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:08.899
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.029
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.254
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.320
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.358
6 George Russell Mercedes +0.544
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.723
8 Liam Lawson VCARB +1.042
9 Alexander Albon Williams +1.179
10 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team NO TIME
11 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:09.941
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.023
13 Sergio Perez Red Bull +0.083
14 Franco Colapinto Williams +0.334
15 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber +0.654
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:10.978
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.074
18 Yuki Tsunoda VCARB +0.143
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.302
20 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber +2.000

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