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NOS Sport•vandaag, 13:14
Max Verstappen starts the São Paulo Grand Prix this afternoon from seventeenth place, far behind his World Cup competitor Lando Norris. Verstappen did not get further than twelfth place in the chaotic qualifying with numerous crashes and no fewer than five red flags.
The defending champion already had a five-place grid penalty to his name and has to start in seventeenth place. Alexander Albon’s seventh starting spot remains empty, he does not participate after a crash.
“It’s unbelievable,” Verstappen told F1TV. He found it particularly strange that a red flag was not immediately raised after Lance Stroll’s crash, meaning that Norris was able to complete his lap and Verstappen was not. “Stroll’s car was torn apart and then they let the drivers in front of me continue for another half minute. I can’t get my head around it,” he grumbled.
Norris stayed out of trouble and took pole position. After winning the sprint race yesterday, the McLaren driver is still 44 points behind Verstappen. There are still four races to go.
Qualifying was held on Sunday for only the sixth time in F1 history. Yesterday it was pouring rain in São Paulo and qualifying could not take place. The race will start at 4:30 PM.
Verstappen had an excellent start in qualifying, but only returned to the track late in Q2 after a red flag. While on a fast lap, Stroll crashed, causing another red flag and the session was ended prematurely with 46 seconds left. This was the end of the story for Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez.
Five red flags
The reigning world champion showed how good Verstappen is on a wet track in Q1. For most drivers it was initially a matter of searching. How fast can you go on the soaking wet asphalt? How do you approach the corner when you barely have any grip?
Verstappen had the right answer to those questions, Franco Colapinto did not. The Argentinian flew out of the corner and hit the wall hard. When the subsequent red flag disappeared, Lewis Hamilton still had to set a decent lap. But the Mercedes driver was unable to do that. He did not get further than the sixteenth fastest time and dropped out.
Norris also had a hard time in the rain. He quickly qualified for Q2. Verstappen drove a very strong final lap and finished the first session fastest.
In Q2, Norris managed to find some more rhythm. Shortly after the session was halted for a while due to a crash by Carlos Sainz, the McLaren driver took to the track. He rode the third fastest time. Verstappen and Pérez were only sent back to the circuit later and that turned out to be a very bad decision.
Stroll spun out of the corner shortly before the end of the session and caused the third red flag. Verstappen had not yet achieved a top lap at that time. Because there were only 46 seconds left on the clock, the session was not resumed and it was over for the Dutchman.
Pole for Norris
In the last part of qualifying, Fernando Alonso went all out for pole position, took too much risk and also flew off the track. Norris had set the fastest time a little earlier.
Once again the session had to be stopped with a red flag. Soon after the Spaniard’s damaged car was towed away, Alexander Albon was the next to crash on the slippery Interlagos. That caused the fifth red flag.
In the end, Norris kept the fastest time. Only George Russell came close to him.
