Max Verstappen and Red Bull anticipated the weather conditions perfectly to secure pole position for Sunday's Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull anticipated the weather conditions perfectly to secure pole position for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Image: @Max33VerstappenMax Verstappen and Red Bull anticipated the weather conditions perfectly to secure pole position for Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Image: @Max33VerstappenThe newly-crowned three-time world champion clocked a best lap in one minute and 10.727 seconds to outpace Leclerc by 0.
On his second Q1 run, Leclerc went top for Ferrari with Piastri going second as rain was forecast and the track improved, providing increasingly more grip, which in turn forced the top teams to take new tyres and continue lapping to avoid the cut. Russell was fastest ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc, with only half a second separating third from 18th in a highly-competitive session during which tyre usage was critical for performance and strategy planning for Sunday’s race.In falling temperatures, McLaren’s Norris and Piastri impressed before Max Verstappen found his touch to clock 1:10.162, a three-tenths improvement on his Q1 lap and good enough to resist both Ferraris and both Mercedes’ efforts.
At the flag, it was Nico Hulkenberg of Haas, the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, last year’s pole-sitter Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas and Williams’ Alex Albon who missed out on the top-10 shootout.