Heavy rain made qualifying for the Grand Prix in São Paulo/Brazil impossible on Saturday. After the actual start at 7 p.m. German time was postponed several times, the race stewards announced at 8:45 p.m. that the hunt for times would be postponed to Sunday morning.
The last time this happened was in Japan in 2019, when qualifying had to be postponed due to a typhoon. “There are the problems of track conditions and light,” explained Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali on Sky. In São Paulo the sun sets around 6:15 p.m. local time – too early to drive. The new asphalt, in combination with the water masses, would probably have turned the route into a slide.
The fact that qualifying is canceled is “absolutely right. There is too much water on the route. It would be far too risky to do just one lap,” said Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
The sprint in Brazil took place in the sunshine in the dry Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. Lando Norris was able to celebrate the victory there – but he only got it because of a team order. Only two laps before the end he was let past by his teammate Oscar Piastri at the behest of the McLaren command post and was the first to see the checkered flag. World Cup rival and defending champion Max Verstappen, however, made a faux pas.
Because the Dutchman pressed the accelerator too quickly during the restart during a late virtual safety car phase, the race stewards subsequently handed him a five-second penalty. As a result, Verstappen (367 points) slipped from third to fourth place and lost three points to Norris (323 points) in the overall standings. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc inherited third place behind Piastri.
