Max Verstappen At the São Paulo Grand Prix, the twentieth round of the season, pole position was achieved at the Interlagos circuit. DutchHe, who will try to break his own record and achieve his 17th victory of the season behind the wheel of Red Bull on Sunday, was the fastest in qualifying, which ended early due to a severe storm. The stewards determined the best lap (1.10.727) before canceling the race with a red flag due to rain. Leclerc will start second, ahead of the two Aston Martins of Stroll and Alonso, who were the surprise of the day after two unfortunate weekends in Austin and Mexico.
Mercedes, which was the fastest at this stage a year ago and was second on the podium with the wins of Russell and Hamilton, fell to fifth and sixth places in the rankings, and Carlos Sainz could not achieve the result he expected afterwards. Leading to freedom. The Madrid native will start the race in eighth place on Sunday.
After a single free practice session led by the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, qualifying began with a fifteen-minute delay to clear the track following complaints from drivers who found screws and stones on the tarmac. “The track is in a very bad condition. These are not up to Formula 1 standards,” he criticized. Fernando Alonso, with this lewis hamilton It was one of those riddled with holes in the morning.
norris He set the first benchmark in the first quarter with a lap of 1:10.623, which was enough for him to advance to the next round. Leclerc improved his record (1.10.472) and piastria It contains 47 thousandths of the Monegasque. Moreover Alonso and Sainz They worked hard to get a place in the next round due to the threat of rain at the Autódromo Jose Carlos Pace.
Q1: Aston Martin ‘experiment’ works
The tour ended suddenly Tsunoda elimination, requesting sanctions Hamilton for blocking him and Ricciardo, Bottas, Sargeant and Zhou We are completing the to-do list for the 2nd quarter. After testing two different configurations on cars Alonso And Stroll In Free Practice 1, Aston Martin qualified by fitting the same parts to every AMR23, and it worked; Two drivers were among the seven drivers with the fastest starts. While Carlos Sainz survived the race with more problems than expected, Russell set the best provisional time (1.10.340) followed by Verstappen and Leclerc.
Q2: Alonso and Sainz, forward
Although he didn’t look as comfortable as at other circuits, three-time champion Max Verstappen cut his Q1 time by three tenths (1.10.162) in his first outing in the McLarens. Norris and Piastri after him.
With the new soft tires, Sainz left the qualifying zone behind and placed second, followed by Russell. The ‘fear’ that the Mercedes driver experienced with a ‘nervous’ vehicle also caused Hamilton pain. After qualifying in Q3, Alonso secured his place in the third quarter by achieving the fourth best time. withdrew from the pole position race In the last two races in Austin and Mexico.
Norris passed the test fastest (1.10.021), ahead of Red Bull and Alonso, while Sainz and Ferrari gambled, perhaps unnecessarily, by resorting to a new set of tires to attempt another fast lap. it was fifth at the time. Seeing that the rest was not improving, the driver from Madrid slowed down to save his tyres. Hülkenberg, Ocon, Gasly, Magnussen and Albon They could not pass the tour.
Q3: Verstappen’s pole position
The decisive battle for pole began as overcast skies and a storm approached the track, forcing the teams to accelerate to try to get a clean lap before the first drops appeared on the track.
Classification was played in a single trial. Alonso, who was first in line, completed a lap that put him in fourth place. Verstappen used all his strength to secure pole position with a time of 1.10.727. Leclerc, Stroll and Fernando. The flood was approaching and the two Aston Martin was ahead mercedesPiastri fell out of the fray after going off the track and Sainz dropped to eighth.
Red flag and early termination as soon as download starts water hose, This gave Verstappen his eleventh pole position of the season.