Piastri pips team mate Norris to sprint race pole position · F1 · RaceFans

Oscar Piastri secured pole position for the Interlagos sprint race by beating team mate Lando Norris with his second attempt in SQ3.

Piastri improved on his second run to beat his team mate by 0.029s, while Norris abandoned his last lap due to making too many mistakes.

The two McLarens will start on the front row for Saturday’s sprint, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen behind them on the second row.

SQ1

After the earlier practice session took place under clear skies, clouds covered the circuit as the first phase of sprint qualifying approached. Race control confirmed a slight threat of rain as the field headed out of the pits, led by the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr.

As per the regulations, all drivers had to use medium tyres for this first session. Leclerc was quickest out of the two Ferraris at first with his first lap of a 1’11.654 They were beaten comfortably by George Russell, before Oscar Piastri posted the new fastest overall time with a 1’10.265, kicking up a shower of sparks on the new track surface as he completed his lap.

Despite all 20 drivers looking to find room on the track in the closing minutes of the relatively short session, the drivers all managed to find room on the track to complete a final flying lap. Franco Colapinto had lost his only previous timed lap for exceeding track limits at Descida do Lago, meaning he had to make his final lap count. He did just that, however, jumping straight up to ninth as he took the chequered flag.

Failing to make it through into the second phase were Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda, who claimed his lap was fine, but just had no grip with his RB. Lance Stroll was also knocked out in 19th, while Zhou Guanyu could not follow his team mate Valtteri Bottas into SQ2. As the session ended Lando Norris produced a stunningly quick lap to head the times by almost eight tenths of a second.

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SQ1 result

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SQ2

After Norris posted a time which was comfortably the quickest of the day at the end of SQ1, the McLaren driver jumped straight to the top of the screens once again with a 1’09.063, almost half a second quicker than his team mate as well as the Ferraris or Mercedes.

It was up to the Red Bulls to try and beat Norris, but while Verstappen went second-fastest with his first attempt, even he was four tenths slower than his championship rival.

Both…