Lando Norris of McLaren emerged from the downpour in Brazil to secure the pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday. The Englishman managed to avoid the pitfalls, unlike his rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who was eliminated in Q2.
Lando Norris (McLaren, pole position holder at the Sao Paulo GP): “A lot happened, but I’m very happy. I struggled a lot at the beginning. There was a lot of work to do and I wasn’t comfortable at all. I made a lot of progress throughout the session, as there were many areas where I could improve. I’m a bit surprised to be on pole. I had some good laps and it’s a good result for us. We always try to push the limits but many drivers went off and it was easy to end the session in a wall and compromise the race. Risk-taking wasn’t necessarily rewarded. In Q1, I struggled to find out how much I could attack, so I’m relieved and happy to finish the qualification this way.”
Yuki Tsunoda
“I had a big scare but I didn’t hit the rails. I feel much better than yesterday (Saturday), we have a good pace in the rain and it’s a good position for the start.”
George Russell (Mercedes, 2nd): (On the qualifications) “I honestly love it, it reminds me of my karting races. We get up, have breakfast in our suits and then go driving. Maybe they should consider this format for the future, maybe it’s the one that’s needed. It was a great session and we’ll see what we can do in the race.”
Verstappen, who was eliminated in Q2 at the Brazil Grand Prix, will start in 17th position.
Driver Reactions
Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls, 3rd): “It was very tricky, but I loved it. We had a good pace on the wet tyres. I made a few mistakes and wheel locks, but as a team, it’s a very good result with Liam (Lawson, 5th). This is one of the most challenging tracks, as when confidence increases, you can take more risks and make mistakes, as we’ve seen many times. I had a big scare but didn’t hit the rails. I feel much better than yesterday (Saturday), we have a good pace in the rain and it’s a good position for the start.”
Esteban Ocon (Alpine, 4th): “I’m happy I got up at 4:30 for this, of course. It’s cool that the conditions manage to level the performance of the cars. I’m a bit disappointed with the last lap, as we tried something new and it was a bit worse, but it’s a superb performance considering the rest of the season.”
Max Verstappen
“Stroll hit the wall and it was obvious his car was wrecked and they waited 30 to 40 seconds to bring out the red flag. It’s astonishing, frankly!”
Max Verstappen (Red Bull, 12th): “It’s incredible what’s happening with the red flags! Stroll hit the wall and it was obvious his car was wrecked and they waited 30 to 40 seconds to bring out the red flag. It’s astonishing, frankly! I had to back off and the lap was over but they should have brought out the red flag immediately as there was still time. It’s unbelievable!”
Pierre Gasly (Alpine, 15th): “You have to do laps. I didn’t do a lap on intermediates in both attempts in Q2. A lot of things went wrong. I won’t go into detail because I’m really annoyed. Inside the team, we could have managed things better, but that’s how it is, we’ll have to make up ground in the race, because that’s where we score points.”
