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It’s Piastri on pole! Here’s the grid for Saturday’s sprint race at Interlagos: 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race grid.
Verstappen goes fourth, Norris abandons his lap which surely means pole position for Piastri.
Sainz goes third but Leclerc beats Piastri for second on the grid. It doesn’t last though as Piastri takes pole position off Norris!
Now the others join in. Piastri is told he can gain time compared to Norris in the Senna ‘S’ and Pinheirinho. Bearman goes off at the Senna S and loses eight tenths of a second.
Albon’s had some poor luck in recent races so he runs by himself and sets a 1’10.078 which is two tenths of a second slower than he managed on the medium rubber in SQ2.
Piastri bangs in a 1’09.225, Norris is faster in all three sectors however and a 1’08.928 is the target for the rest.
It’s all about the McLaren on these runs. Norris is mere hundredths quicker than Piastri in the first sector.
SQ3 begins and with clouds gathering McLaren send both their cars out straight away. Albon joins them. Soft tyres are required by the rules for this session.
Hamilton only makes it to 11th! He’s out in SQ2. Hulkenberg, Perez, Colapinto and Bottas also fall.
Bird: “We’re not going to make it. Box. Recharge on.” Perez: “Oh, fuck.”
Bearman goes sixth, Perez slips into the drop zone along with Hamilton. Lawson beats Perez and the Red Bull driver fails to get a lap in! He’s out!
Bearman, Hulkenberg and Lawson haven’t set times yet. Hamilton is in serious danger in 10th place as the final runs begin.
Verstappen is still chasing his car’s set-up: “Turn four, now the car doesn’t turn with this wing setting.”
Verstappen just beats Sainz for second, there’s less than an hundredth of a second, though. Hamilton, ninth, says he has “no grip” on this tyre.
Piastri goes third this time, just over half a second off his team mate. Verstappen, however, beats Norris in the first sector.
SQ2 has begun and Norris picks up where he left off with a 1’09.063. Russell is six-tenths off that in second – until Sainz beats it, getting within half a second off the McLaren.
Norris produces a stunning effort, 1’09.477, to go fastest. Colapinto grabs ninth and deposits Alonso into the drop zone. His team mate is out too, so are Ocon, Tsunoda and Zhou.
Bearman improves to fifth, Norris now fastest of all in the first sector, while McLaren tell…
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