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A marathon qualifying session in the Sao Paulo rain has given us a very mixed-up grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix in Brazil, with McLaren’s Lando Norris on pole and the Red Bull of his championship rival Max Verstappen a lowly P16.
The Mercedes of George Russell joins Norris on the front row, with a delighted Yuki Tsunoda third for RB. Esteban Ocon has his best-ever grid slot here with P4 for Alpine, while Liam Lawson backs up his RB team mate with an impressive fifth.
REPORT: Norris beats Russell and Tsunoda to pole position in Sao Paulo amid five red flags in dramatic rain-affected qualifying
Charles Leclerc is the lead Ferrari in sixth, but his team mate Carlos Sainz will start from the pit lane after crashing out in Q2 and then taking on a new power unit. Alex Albon was due to start from P7, but his Williams was too heavily damaged to make the start after his big shunt towards the end of qualifying.
That means in seventh place (behind Albon’s empty grid slot) we have the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, followed by the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, both of who made the top 10, despite both crashing out of qualifying.
READ MORE: Tsunoda and Lawson thrilled with ‘epic’ qualifying result in Sao Paulo as RB look to catch Haas in constructors’ battle
Stroll’s accident – see it here – brought out the red flags which meant championship leader Verstappen couldn’t improve his Q2 time, hence the Dutchman lines up on the eighth row after a five-place grid penalty for taking a new power unit.
His Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez starts five places ahead in 11th, while the other driver somewhat out of position is Lewis Hamilton, 13th in a Mercedes he was far from happy with.
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