Max Verstappen and Red Bull beat the weather to take pole before Q3 conclusion rained off, ahead of Charles Leclerc and the Aston Martins; watch Sprint Saturday at the Sao Paulo GP live on Sky Sports F1, with the Shootout at 2pm and the Sprint itself at 6.30pm
Saturday 4 November 2023 11:32, UK
Max Verstappen beat the arrival of an extraordinary Interlagos storm to see off what had been a fierce qualifying challenge from his rivals to secure pole position for Sunday's Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Having appeared set to face a major fight for pole from McLaren's Lando Norris, who topped Q2, in particular, Red Bull crucially got their man out earlier on track than most at the start of Q3 as ominously dark clouds gathered over the circuit.
Verstappen, who overtook Mercedes' George Russell exiting the pits at the start of his out lap, delivered a 1:10.727 on what turned out to be the one flying lap in the final session to secure an 11th pole position of his season.
For Norris and McLaren, it was sharp disappointment. The Briton's pacesetting form from the second phase turned in to just what became sixth on the grid for Sunday's grand prix with McLaren beginning their hot lap later than proved to be ideal.
Team-mate Oscar Piastri, who had been second last out of the pits, spun into the grass at the penultimate corner as the rain fell and he qualified 10th.
"The car was amazing," admitted a disappointed Norris. "Easily probably quick enough to be quickest today and on pole. So pretty gutted for that to end the way we did."
In strange scenes at what was only just after 4pm local time, Interlagos descended into almost total night-time darkness as storm clouds and high winds rolled in.
The rain though took time to properly make an impact on the track and so drivers just had time to complete one fast lap in Q3 on slick tyres. Onto his lap first, Verstappen set a benchmark that wasn't beaten with conditions only gradually getting worse for those behind him on the road.
The clouds started to truly burst as the drivers headed back to the pits, meaning the session was soon red-flagged with four minutes remaining. With so few minutes on the clock, and the weather only worsening with lightning seen in the distance, Race Control decided that the pole shootout would not be restarted and so the Q3 timesheet would stand as it was.
While McLaren badly lost out, Aston Martin had been quickest on their feet at the start of Q3 and profited from the truncated session to take a morale-boosting third and fourth on the grid after a miserable run of recent races for the team.
Lance Stroll outqualified Fernando Alonso for just the third time this year and he will start as the team's lead car in third place, the Canadian's best starting berth for three years.
"McLaren will be gutted, they will think they were chance for a pole there, but Aston Martin to be fair were strong all the way through," said Sky F1's Martin Brundle.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, the polesitter for the first two legs of F1's ongoing Americas triple header, will start alongside Verstappen on the front row but there were also timing regrets for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell qualified only fifth and sixth respectively.
But Russell was later demoted two places to eighth after falling foul of the new guidance around creating gaps at the pit exit. The Mercedes driver was found to have contravened the race director's notes for this event by not staying far enough left to allow oncoming cars, in this case Pierre Gasly's Alpine, to pass.
Norris was promoted to sixth with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who had off track in Q3, moved into seventh.
Under-pressure Sergio Perez, meanwhile, is back on row five in ninth place for Red Bull after unfortunate timing meant he passed Piastri while the McLaren was spinning on the grass and therefore had to slow down for yellow flags.
But, not for the first time, there was no such misfortune for the other Red Bull.
"We didn't know when it would hit in qualifying, we thought it would hit," said polesitter Verstappen. "This is of course insane weather.
"Charles and I were just discussing, our laps felt terrible, but I don't know, I think the wind started to change and started to be very strong and we lost a lot of lap time because of it. It was all quite hectic in the last lap."
Although the battle at the head of the timesheet had been close and unpredictable all through Friday's running, the qualifying hour had featured few shocks up to Q3.
In potential positive news for Perez, whose seat at Red Bull for 2024 does not appear completely secure, Daniel Ricciardo hopes of repeating his superb points-scoring result from last week in Mexico look difficult after he dropped out in Q1 in 17th place, one place behind AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Sao Paulo GP Qualifying result: Top 10
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
3) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
4) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
6) George Russell, Mercedes*
7) Lando Norris, McLaren
8) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
9) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
10) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
*two-place grid penalty to be applied for impeding
With a exciting-looking mixed-up grid in place for Sunday's grand prix, attention now turns to Saturday's standalone Sprint events at Interlagos.
The Sprint Shootout to set the grid for the Sprint itself starts at 2pm, with the 24-lap mini race when points are awarded to the top-eight finishers following at 6.30pm.
The full-length Grand Prix, which uses the results from Friday's qualifying to set its grid, is on Sunday at 5pm with build-up from 3.30pm. All sessions are live on Sky Sports F1.
"This is absolutely crazy. I have never ever seen a change of weather so drastically as that."
The words of Mercedes' Russell as bemused drivers conducted their post-qualifying interviews under cover, and with light at a premium.
The effect of the sudden turnaround in conditions was nowhere more starkly felt at McLaren, who had been strongly threatening to deliver the first pole of their resurgent season up until Q3.
On one of the shortest laps of the season where qualifying is always decided by fine margins, Norris had lapped an impressive 0.141s faster than Verstappen in the totally-dry conditions of Q2 in a car well suited to the undulating sweeps of Brazil's most famous circuit.
The Englishman had also been the only driver to only need one fast lap in Q1 to make the first cut.
"I don't know what do feel about it," admitted Norris, whose wait for a second career pole and first since Russia 2021 continues.
"The car was amazing, it came alive a lot in qualifying and easily good enough to be quickest. Obviously delivering the lap and putting it together in Q3 and everything is a different job, but easily quick enough.
"So another disappointing Saturday, but not a lot we could have done."
Although now out of position for to start of Sunday's grand prix where the biggest points are on offer, Norris and McLaren will first get another chance to qualify at the head of the field this weekend on Saturday in the Sprint Shootout, which sets the grid for the later Sprint race.
Verstappen is certainly aware that Red Bull do not appear to have it all their own way this weekend.
"It seems that it's all very close," said the triple world champion, chasing a record-extending 17th victory of the season on Sunday.
"You could see that already in qualifying. I expect the same also in the race. Around here there's also quite a lot of deg from the tyres. So it's all about that management."
F1 is in Brazil for the final leg of the Americas triple header and the last Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Watch every session from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday's race at 5pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW
