Lando Norris admits that Saturday’s São Paulo Grand Prix sprint could be an easy ride in ideal conditions, but a complicated weather forecast could shake things up.
McLaren looked top class in FP1, but faced a closer-than-expected race in sprint qualifying, with Norris beating Kimi Antonelli by just 0.097 seconds to take pole position. The championship leader admitted it wasn’t his best performance, but admitted he had achieved his initial goal of starting from the front on Saturday morning.
“It wasn’t my best, but it was good enough for today,” Norris said. “I struggled a little more in FP1. It’s a difficult track. It’s a great track to drive on, but it’s easy to get the timing wrong or hit the wrong bumps. I still had a few little mistakes on the last lap, but I was still fast enough.”
“I think it’s always tricky when you’re on soft tires too. Do I push another 20%? 10%? 5%? Do I actually go back a little bit? But it was a good enough lap to get pole position, so I’m very happy.”
With a cyclone warning in place for Friday night into Saturday morning, the sprint will be a wet race, potentially adding to the unpredictability.
“Of course we have to be prepared for both (dry and wet) conditions,” Norris said. “We’re expecting heavy rain in the morning and incredible winds at the same time, so we’ll see what happens.
“I think the car is performing well in dry conditions, but not everything is so good that we are happy with it. There may be some things to improve for tomorrow’s qualifying, but what about the sprint race? If we can cruise to the win, that would be great.”
Third place on the grid behind Antonelli wasn’t ideal for Piastri, but it showed a step forward in performance from the past two races and the Australian sees his start to the weekend at Interlagos as positive.
“The software was a little different than I expected,” Piastri said. “I had some big moments in the first lap, which was a little disappointing, but ultimately I felt a lot happier today than I have been in weeks.
“Practice went very well. I think we changed a few things in the sprint qualifying. It also took a little bit of time to get used to, but in the end I’m pretty happy. I would have liked a little more, but we can definitely compete with what we have and there are obviously more points on Sunday.”
“It’s going to be an interesting day. We’ll see what the weather is like. But I’ll try anything I get. I thought the pace of the car was really good today, so I hope that translates into results.”
Antonelli left a little behind in the last run, but he still finished the race satisfied. Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Antonelli’s performance was notable as the rookie secured another front-row start in the sprint weekend, but the Italian was not satisfied with his final lap as he chased pole position.
“Overall it was a good session,” Antonelli said. “SQ1 was a little rough and I think it was a little difficult with the traffic, but after that I got into a rhythm. The soft lap in the penultimate sector was a little disappointing, but it was still a decent lap. I’m second for tomorrow so I have a lot to fight for.”
“We have to be careful with the wind. Tomorrow we can expect very different conditions than today because the wind will be rotating quite a bit. And the weather will be a little choppy. But we’ll try to be ready for anything.”
However, it was a tough qualifying session for the third champion contender. Max Verstappen was only sixth, but compared to the two McLaren drivers, he will have room to recover to minimize damage.
“There was a lot of vibration in the car and a lot of problems with the ride quality,” Verstappen said. “So, it’s not what we wanted. But other than that, I also think we lack grip. The middle sector is the worst. You can’t turn the car around, but at the same time you can’t rely on the rear too much. So, yeah, for us, I would say it’s just pretty poor.”
“I don’t know (if the rain will help). We’ll see, right? I mean, I think it’s obvious we’re missing something. And I don’t think we’re suddenly going to get miles better in the rain. But we’ll find out tomorrow.”
