SÃO PAULO — Lando Norris continued to tighten his grip on the Formula 1 title fight with pole position in Brazil, with title rival Oscar Piastri fourth and Max Verstappen failing to progress out of Q1.
Norris messed up his first run in Q3 but nailed his second, setting a 1:09.511 which was 0.174s quicker than Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s time.
It came hours after Norris had extended his championship lead to nine points by winning Saturday’s sprint race, which Piastri had dramatically crashed out of.
Charles Leclerc pipped Piastri to fourth — Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton laboured to 13th, failing to make Q3.
Piastri had been on provisional pole after the first Q3 runs but only marginally improved on that time with his final run, allowing Norris, Antonelli and Leclerc to climb above him in the order.
Further improving Norris’ outlook will have been Verstappen’s shocking elimination from Q1. Verstappen, 39 points behind after the sprint race, saw his already slim championship hopes dealt what might be a decisive blow, qualifying 16th. It meant he took no part in Q2 for the first time since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
“I have no grip, zero … brilliant.” Verstappen told his team at one point. When asked if the team can help him out at all from the pit wall, he had said: “I don’t really know what to tell you.”
It was the first time in his career that he has been eliminated from Q1 for car pace.
The four-time world champion had been edging towards the dueling McLaren drivers since the summer break, but that charge came to an end when Norris won the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Brazil and Las Vegas, the next race, were seen as venues Verstappen could continue taking points out of the McLarens, but he appears to now face an uphill battle to keep himself in the fight.
“It was just bad. I couldn’t push at all,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the session.
“The car was all over the place, sliding around a lot. I had to under-drive it a lot just to not have a moment. That of course doesn’t work in qualifying.
“We first have to analyse what is going on. I don’t really understand how it can be this bad, so that’s more important for us to understand at the moment.”
A crum of comfort might be the memory of Verstappen’s famous victory at this circuit 12 months ago from 15th on the grid, which moved him to the cusp of that season’s title.
However, that performance took place in heavy rain, weather which is not currently forecast to intervene in Sunday’s contest. Doubling the blow for Red Bull was that Verstappen’s out-of-form teammate Yuki Tsunoda qualified dead last, meaning he will start 19th ahead of local favourite Gabriele Bortoleto.
Racing Bulls rookie Isak Hadjar, who appears most likely to replace Tsunoda in 2025, continued his fantastic season by qualifying fifth. It was Red Bull’s first double elimination from Q1 since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, at the end of the team’s second season in Formula 1.
Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, the F1 rookie who grew up in São Paulo, did not take part in qualifying after crashing heavily in the sprint several hours earlier.
F1’s world broadcast feed did show the Brazilian driver in his race overalls and next to the car in the garage, but the sprint crash had obviously left the team with too big of a job to complete in time for qualifying.
F1’s rules will allow him to start Sunday’s race as he qualified for the sprint and also was well within the 107% of the fastest time during the week’s only practice session.
George Russell was unable to match teammate Antonelli’s pace, qualifying sixth ahead of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.
Haas rookie Oliver Bearman was seventh ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg. After taking a strong sixth position in the sprint, Fernando Alonso qualified 11th for Aston Martin.
Hamilton will start on the row behind Alonso, continuing the seven-time world champion’s miserable first season at Ferrari.
