It was “hero to zero” for AlphaTauri and Daniel Ricciardo while Oscar Piastri and McLaren ran into issues in the final session of a wet and wild qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
As for who excelled, Max Verstappen and Red Bull anticipated the weather conditions perfectly to secure pole position ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The newly-crowned three-time world champion clocked a best lap in one minute and 10.727 seconds to outpace Leclerc by 0.294 seconds with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso taking third and fourth places to lock out the second row of the grid for Aston Martin.
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Hamilton bamboozled by Perez crash | 00:54
Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes ahead of team-mate George Russell, leaving a disappointed Lando Norris seventh for McLaren, after promising much more.
Carlos Sainz qualified eighth in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Piastri, who did not manage to clock a time in Q3 for McLaren.
It was Verstappen’s 11th pole position of the season and lifted him to 31 for his career, one clear of Nico Rosberg and eighth in the all-time list of all-time.
“We didn’t know when it was coming and when it would hit,” said Verstappen of the storm.
“Of course, it is insane weather! My laps felt terrible and Charles and I discussed this and the hectic wind we had in the final laps.
“For the race, I think it seems very close.”
Leclerc said: “In my career, I have never experienced anything like this. There was no rain, but also no grip and it was difficult to drive. It was very weird. I am happy to be on P2.”
The session was delayed 15 minutes to allow for cleaning of the circuit after screws and stones had caused punctures in free practice, notably for Alonso, starting his record-extending 375th Grand Prix, and Hamilton.
In hot conditions, and with clouds threatening, Piastri was first out to set a time before Stroll and then Norris took command.
Verstappen struggled, complaining of his car’s handling. “My car is jumping around like a kangaroo, the same problem as in Mexico,” he reported.
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.
After a final flurry, the bottom five were Yuki Tsunoda and his Alpha Tauri team-mate Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo, Logan Sargeant of Williams and Zhou Guanyu in the second Alfa Romeo.
Speaking after Q1, Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok broke down just where Ricciardo went wrong while navigating a few turns early in qualifying.
“Real hero to zero here for AlphaTauri after a brilliant qualifying at Mexico,” Chandhok said.
“Daniel got it wrong right at the beginning of the lap. He went way too deep, completely missed the first apex and that completely ruins his line for the second part because it means he’s on a tighter trajectory for that second part there and therefore he’s just bleeding lap time, has a snap of oversteer at the apex as well for good measure.
“That was pretty much the end of his lap even before he got to the end of the first sector.”
Ricciardo told Sky Sports it was “frustrating” to go out the way he did given AlphaTauri’s success at the Mexico Grand Prix, where he claimed fourth on the grid at qualifying.
“The first run was strong, I think we were definitely a lot faster than the overall time showed,” Ricciardo said.
“That last lap I nearly had a spin turn 2, just came in a bit hot into Turn 1, probably didn’t get the tyres into the right spot for the start of the lap.
“So we’d already lost a chunk in the first sector and then little bits and pieces throughout the lap.
“Frustrating because we were definitely faster than that but just a few things didn’t quite work out.”
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 Monday’s [AEDT] race.
In falling temperatures, McLaren’s Norris and Piastri impressed before 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.
‘I felt really confident from lap 1’ | 01:08
With four minutes remaining, it was fiercely close and only three-tenths separated all 15 runners before Norris went top in 1:10.021, confirming McLaren as a major contender for the Grand Prix.
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.
Q3 began in near-darkness under leaden clouds, with Alonso leading the way before Verstappen clocked 1:10.727, Leclerc going second ahead of Stroll and his Aston Martin team-mate before the weather turned wild.
A blast of wind upset Piastri’s lap, Leclerc complained of “super weird conditions” and Alonso declared “it’s night” before the session was red-flagged.
While seventh was not a terrible result for Norris, the “gutted” McLaren driver conceded post-qualifying that he was definitely confident of a better finish.
“It was great, honestly. The car was amazing. Easily probably quick enough to be quickest today and on pole. So pretty gutted for that to end the way we did,” Norris told Sky Sports F1.
“I don’t know what do feel about it. The car was amazing, it came alive a lot in qualifying and easily good enough to be quickest.
“Obviously delivering the lap and putting it together in Q3 and everything is a different job, but easily quick enough.
“So another disappointing Saturday, but not a lot we could have done.”
Piastri said he was “struggling a lot” on his first lap of qualifying before sliding off the track, admitting it was a “shame” for his run to end in that fashion.
“Just lost a lot of grip. I don’t know if it was already raining or what, but I was struggling a lot already on the lap, I think everyone was based on how slow the laps were,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1.
“Just went in how I thought I did the last lap and slid straight off.
“It’s a shame, the pace of the car was looking good, but we’ll try again tomorrow.”
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