F1 Sao Paulo GP: Max Verstappen beats Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll to pole position before storm hits
The reigning world champion posted a la🎉p 0.294s quicker than Leclerc to deny the Monegasque a hat-trick of poles across the Americas ♑triple-header and seal a front-of-the-grid starting spot for Sunday’s grand prix.
It marks Verstappen’s 11th pole of a remarkable, record-breaking 2023 campaign but it is the🎶 first time he has topped qua🌠lifying since last month’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Weather conditions changed dramatically in the final minutes of qualifying and cau𝓀ght several drivers🍬 out, before a heavy deluge of rain swept across the Interlagos circuit to bring Q3 to an early end.
Lance Stroll claimed a brilliant third place for Aston Martin, ahead of teamma🌠te Fernando Alonso, who sealed a second row lock-out that will delight the Silverstone-based squad after a dꦦifficult second half of the season.
Lewis Hamilton was over seven-tenths off the pace in fꦿifth, ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.
After topping the second part of qualifying and looking like a favourite to challenge for pole, Lando Norris will be bitterly disappointed to have only qualified 💮seventh, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.&n𓂃bsp;
Under-pressure Red Bull driver ꦿSergio Perez was a disappointin🍌g ninth after being caught out by yellow flags caused by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri going off at the final corner.
After being one of the stars of qualifying last week in Mexico, Daniel Ricciardo had a hero-to-zero moment as he suffered a Q1 elimination in 17th, behind AlphaTauri t💮eammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Only Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bo💦ttas, Williams’ Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu were slower than the AlphaTauri pair.
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