Norris on pole from Russell and Tsunoda in dramatic qualifying

McLaren’s Lando Norris topped qualifying at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix while Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was controversially eliminated after falling foul of the wet session’s many red flags.

George Russell will start second for this afternoon’s brought-forward race for Mercedes, with Yuki Tsunoda third for RB as Verstappen’s engine-change grid penalty means he will start 17th – behind Lewis Hamilton, who was eliminated in Q1.

In Q3, Norris led with a time of 1m25.631s after the first runs on the intermediate tyres, with the cars fuelled to run long as the teams expected the fluctuating rain to intensify again.

He improved this to a 1m24.158s to head Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren before Fernando Alonso became the second Aston Martin driver of the session to crash out – the Spaniard losing his car through the plunging Turn 11 left at the end of the middle sector.

The drivers lined up to try again with seven minutes left on the clock and their first efforts back on track did not yield improvements as they built tyre temperature – Russell, Piastri and Tsunoda all having moments, the latter two spinning.

But before any purple sectors could be registered, Albon crashed hard at Turn 1 – appearing to brake on the wet white line while also wondering if he had a brake problem after spinning off backwards, wrecking the rear of his Williams and causing a fifth red flag.

Afterwards, the teams took two different approaches, with the McLarens fuelled to do two laps, Norris improving the pole time with both – first to a 1m24.092s and then finally to a 1m23.405s.

Piastri did not improve on his first go and then locked up at Turn 1 and went off on his final lap, which meant the drivers that were kept in the garage for extra time with their inters in the tyre blankets and time for just one run were able to gain.

First Liam Lawson got up to second before he was shuffled down by Tsunoda and Norris, while Esteban Ocon – a two-lap runner for the final efforts – snuck into fourth for Alpine.

Charles Leclerc ended up sixth as the lead Ferrari having got to Turn 1 with a yellow flag activated for Piastri’s off on his final lap, with Albon nudged down to seventh but still ahead of Piastri.

The crashed Astons of Alonso and Lance Stroll ended up with the ninth and 10th slots – the latter not taking part in Q3 due to his…