Lando Norris signed the most complicated pole of the World of Formula 1 inside Brazilian Grand Prix. The British driver will start first in the race which will take place in just three hours, ahead of George Russell and the big surprise, Yuki Tsunoda. But above all he will start with 16 positions ahead of his rival for the title, Max Verstappen (with a penalty of five places for changing the engine block), twelfth for one of the five accidents that occurred during qualifying this Sunday on the circuit of Interlagos.
It passed through the hair of the T1suffered in the T2 and reigned over T3. Norris achieved a very interesting pole in Sao Paulo after a chaotic session which left him well above his opponent, Verstappen. The Dutchman will have to come back like never before after this setback which prevented him from making a final attempt in the second part of the session due to the accident. Lance’s Walk and the red flag that followed. The Canadian was among the injured, in addition to the pilots of the Williamsof his partner, Fernando Alonsowho will start ninth, and the other Spaniard, Carlos Sainzwho will start from fourteenth position.
The top 10 craziest grills of the year have been closed Stéphane Ocon, Liam Lawson, Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon (waiting to see if he runs because of his serious accident), Oscar Piastri and both Aston Martin –Alonso and Promenade–. It will be up to the pilots in the upper zone to put their elbows together Czech PérezSainz, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen, while Norris will be able to double his victory in the sprint. All this under the expected deluge at the time of the race (4:30 p.m.).
And finally, it happened in Brazil. At 11:30 a.m. a session delayed by 15 hours began and the panorama was radically different since the race would take place very shortly after (4:30 p.m.). In addition, F1 finally showed us extreme rain tires, those which had remained in the closet for a long time by lifting this famous spray which did not limit the vision of the drivers.
First of five accidents
Q1 was interrupted by a red flag, but not because of the weather conditions. It was due to a serious accident Franco Colapintowho for his first time in an F1 in the rain took a big hit in turn 3 from which he emerged unscathed, but in which he destroyed the right side of his Williams a few hours after having had to take it out on track for the race .
The clock was going down like a waterfall and everything was unpredictable, so upper zone drivers like Norris and Hamilton were in real danger of elimination. The former went through a difficult period, saving not only this session but also his title aspirations. On the other hand, that of Mercedes He did not achieve a time that would allow him to advance to Q2 and he was eliminated with Olivier BearmanColapinto, Nico Hulkenberg And Guan Yuzhou.
The rain calmed down in Q2, but only Piastri made the decision to start with intermediates for the first round. The Australian was the smartest in the category, the track dried up and everyone imitated him for the next attempt. The water was taking a break at Interlagos, it even stopped, but that’s when the second accident of the day took place, this one involving Sainz.
Both hits occurred in the same spot, in the controversial round 3 of the José Carlos Pace Autodromewhere as soon as Q2 resumed, Stroll was thrown towards the walls. Thus ended the second lap, which left Norris in the best position and a spectacular Alonso second. The Asturian moved into Q3 and not Verstappen, nor Pérez (these two due to the circumstances of the third red flag due to the Canadian’s accident which prevented them from making a final attempt), nor Sainz. They didn’t do it either Valtteri Bottas And Pierre Gasly.
Alonso falls on his opportunity and Norris pole
The Asturian’s joy did not last long, as he did not achieve a good time in his first attempt in Q3 and while he was on his second lap he suffered an accident, the fourth of the day, at turn 11. It was the most spectacular. of everything, but fortunately he was unharmed. Of course, Aston Martin will have major repair work to be able to get its two cars back on the track in record time.
From the umpteenth restart, another accident, the most serious of all, stopped the session at 3:31 from the end. Grading was taking forever, but Albon’s hard hit during the first braking forced track personnel to clean up any remains left by his Williams, a problem for race participants. Grove Not only on a sporting level, since Colapinto will be its only asset in racing, but above all on an economic level.
All this with the unknown of a final lap where the Visa Cash app R.B. and Ocon with his Alpine They could ring the bell. Tsunoda was the biggest surprise, but Norris was the big winner, who will look from the front row of the grid to claim another victory that will definitely put him closer to Verstappen to fight for his first F1 world championship.
