At the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Lando Norris took pole position and Kimi Antonelli set a last gasp fast lap to take second place, mirroring the front row of the sprint.
Norris suffered a lock-up at Turn 1 on his first lap of Q3, losing almost a second and falling back to 10th, but on his second run he set a personal best in the first sector, followed by session best times in the second and third sectors, posting a lap time of 1:09.511.
Mercedes’ Antonelli opened up a 0.174 second lead on the final lap, taking over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Leclerc will sit on the second row of the grid alongside Norris’ McLaren teammate and main contender for the championship, Oscar Piastri. The Australian set a personal best time in the first sector of the final lap, but was unable to capitalize on Norris’ advantage in the second sector, falling 0.282 seconds behind.
Isaac Hajjar put in a great performance to qualify fifth, with George Russell splitting the Racing Bulls ahead of Liam Lawson in sixth.
Haas’ Oliver Bearman was third in Q1 and second in Q2, but was unable to continue his form until the end of qualifying and finished eighth despite having two sets of new soft tires for the session.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly started qualifying well and recorded the second fastest time in Q1, but ultimately finished in 9th place, while Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg advanced to Q3 for the first time this season in 10th place. This will be his first time at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Games, where he placed 7th in the qualifying round.
This unusual top 10 finish was the result of mass casualties in the early stages of qualifying, making it only the second time in the period in which they raced together that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen failed to advance to Q3, the only other time coincidentally being last year’s São Paulo Grand Prix.
Hamilton struggled with the Ferrari’s rear grip and could only manage 13th fastest time in Q2, behind Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon. Aston Martin and Williams teammates Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz, respectively, also failed to progress beyond Q2.
Verstappen made significant set-up changes before qualifying, which fixed the bounce he was complaining about, but he was also unhappy with the car’s grip, but another problem arose. After a two-lap cooldown before the final push, he lost time in the first and final sectors, but set a new personal best in the second sector.
It was the first time in his career that Verstappen was unable to advance from Q1 on pure pace, and his first retirement at that stage since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, when he was unable to record a lap time due to a power unit penalty.
Verstappen was 16th in Q1, ahead of Franco Colapinto and teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who had fitted his Alpine with a new chassis and gearbox after crashing in a sprint earlier in the day.
It was the first time Red Bull had faced two Q1 exits since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, in its second season in F1 and without yet winning a race or championship title. David Coulthard and Robert Doornbos qualified 17th and 18th respectively.
Although Gabriel Bortleto was able to get into the car before the end of the session, he was unable to take to the track in Q1 due to extensive rebuilding of his Sauber following a huge crash at the end of the sprint. This was despite the start of qualifying being slightly delayed due to barrier repairs carried out after the Porsche Supercup support race that had taken place earlier.
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