Magnussen takes shock sprint race pole position in rain-hit qualifying session · RaceFans

Kevin Magnussen secured a stunning pole position for the Interlagos sprint race after a fortunately-timed red flag ensured he beat Max Verstappen to the fastest time.

In a qualifying hour affected by intermittent rain, Magnussen was the first driver onto the track in Q3 and set what would be the pole position time before George Russell spun into the gravel and trigged a red flag stoppage. Rain fell during the suspension, meaning none of the drivers could improve after the session resumed, securing a shock pole for Magnussen and Haas.

Max Verstappen will start alongside Magnussen on the front row for tomorrow’s sprint race, with George Russell lining up third.

Q1

With light rain having fallen over the Interlagos circuit between first practice and qualifying, the track was still lightly damp as the first phase of qualifying began. All drivers chose to venture out on intermediate tyres, Ferrari warning Charles Leclerc that more rain would arrive 10 minutes into the session.

Leclerc was the fastest of the first batch of drivers to complete an initial banker lap, setting a 1’18.723. Team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr went second quickest, a tenth of a second behind. Then the Red Bulls went fastest on their first efforts of the session, Max Verstappen going quickest of all and team mate Sergio Perez behind in second.

Times continued to fall by the minute, with Fernando Alonso moving to the top of the table before Lewis Hamilton went event faster to take the top spot. With just under 10 minutes remaining, AlphaTauri pitted both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda for soft tyres. Gasly’s first lap was slower than his previous best, but the next time around he went quickest of all.

By now, almost the entire field had moved onto the soft tyres. With three minutes remaining, the drop zone consisted of the two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen.

Stroll and Vettel both improved on softs, bumping the two Ferraris into the drop zone. Sainz jumped into safety on his first slick lap, but Leclerc had to abandon his first lap when he was caught behind Tsunoda, leaving him only one lap with which to get himself through to Q2. Fortunately for Ferrari, he did just that, but his rivals were improving with every car that crossed the line.

After the end of a flurry of late times, Nicholas Latifi was the first driver to be knocked out in 16th place, a tenth behind Daniel Ricciardo in 15th. The two Alfa Romeos were also out,…