Qualifying for the São Paulo Formula 1 Grand Prix took place unusually early on Sunday morning and brought several surprises.
Formula 1 qualifying at 7:30 local time on Sunday had to be moved due to heavy rain on Saturday. It has also been raining in São Paulo since Sunday morning, but the situation has improved so much that it was possible to leave the qualification. But five major accidents caused five interruptions in qualifying and surprising results.
Pole position for the race, which should start already at 16:30 CET, was finally won by Lando Norris from McLaren. At the same time, the second man in the running order only narrowly advanced as fifteenth from the first part of the qualification. In the end, he will start from the most advantageous position, and in addition, the leader of the standings, Max Verstappen, to whom the McLaren pilot loses 44 points, will only start in seventeenth place.
“I struggled a lot at the beginning of qualifying. During the qualification I had to work a lot, I had to improve in many areas, but I did exactly that. I’m a bit surprised to be on pole, but I did some good laps. I felt good at the end,” Norris said.
“It was harder than it looks on TV. You saw how many riders went off the track and crashed into the barriers. It was easy to finish badly, in the wall or in such a way that you won’t be able to start the race in the afternoon.”
Russell is satisfied
The complete British front row on the grid of the Brazilian Grand Prix was taken care of by the second George Russell of Mercedes, who was 173 thousandths of a second behind Norris.
“I’m really happy to be in second place. I love it. It reminds me of my go-karting days, when I got up and had breakfast in my racing suit and went out and drove. Maybe they should think about changing the format, maybe this is it,” Russell said of Sunday’s early qualifying.
“It was a great qualifying, we’ll see what we can do in the race,” added Russell, whose Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashed out in the first part of qualifying and will be fifteenth on the grid.
Cunoda celebrates the best qualification of his career
The wet qualifying in Brazil brought the best qualifying result of his career to Júki Cunoda of the VCARB team. With a loss of 706 thousandths of a second, he took third place and will be in the second row with Esteban Ocon from Alpin. He will also have his teammate Liam Lawson and Charles Leclerc from Ferrari in line behind him.
“It was challenging, but I enjoyed it. I knew right away that we were going to have good speed. We made a few mistakes, but at the same time we were also a little lucky. The team did a really good job,” said Cunoda.
“I had one dramatic moment, but fortunately I was far from the barrier. I feel much better than yesterday, the car was good, we had speed in the rain.”
