Lando Norris secures sprint pole; Gabriel in 14th

British driver Lando Norris confirmed his good form by securing his fourth pole position at the São Paulo GP, leaving Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri behind.
The sprint race at the São Paulo GP will start on Saturday (8), at 11 am (Brasilia time). Follow live updates on ge website.
Norris set the fastest time in the weekend’s free practice session before delivering a solid qualifying performance. He topped the Q1 session, finished second in Q2, and closed Q3 with a time of 1m09.243, less than a tenth ahead of Antonelli.
McLaren teammate and championship title contender Oscar Piastri was 0.185s behind Norris. The gap between the two in the season standings is only one point. Another title contender, Max Verstappen, qualified in sixth place for the sprint race and will start from behind on Saturday.
This was the second time Norris secured pole position in São Paulo, repeating his feat from two years ago. Back then, the McLaren driver finished second behind Max Verstappen. In 2024, he managed to win the race, marking his first sprint victory despite not starting from the front row.
Making his F1 sprint qualifying debut in São Paulo, Bortoleto failed to advance to Q3 and will start in 14th place on Saturday. With the crowd cheering him on at the Interlagos Circuit, the Brazilian initially did well and progressed to Q2 in ninth place. However, he couldn’t post a competitive time in the second segment and was eliminated.
In the results and grid lineup, Lando Norris claimed pole with a time of 1m09.243, followed by Kimi Antonelli (+0.097) and Oscar Piastri (+0.185). Lewis Hamilton will start from 11th in his new Ferrari.
During the SQ1 session, Oscar Piastri led for most of the time, eventually being surpassed by Norris. Bortoleto briefly appeared in the top 10 but slipped to the elimination zone towards the end. After a tire change, he improved his ranking to secure a spot in the next qualifying part.
In the SQ2 segment, Gabriel Bortoleto made progress, finishing in 14th place. Fernando Alonso led the session, followed by Norris, George Russell, and Piastri. The top 10 then moved on to the final SQ3 session, where Norris claimed pole ahead of Antonelli and Piastri.