Norris snatches pole at Interlagos with gutsy final effort; Antonelli impresses in P2, Leclerc carries Ferrari hopes in P3; Verstappen astonishingly bounced in Q1 as Red Bull search for answers
With time running out in the final session of Saturday Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, McLaren’s Lando Norris put in a superb final effort worthy of his Drivers’ Championship points lead and title aspirations. Norris, who had muffed his first flying lap, stormed to a 1:09.511 time when he crossed the stripe, good enough for pole position in Sunday’s race and also a bit of psychological edge over his Papaya teammate, Oscar Piastri, who could only muster P4 on the pylon with his best try. With Norris having already won the earlier Sprint Race and starting from the pole for the Grand Prix at the short but intense Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, aka Interlagos, as well as having overhauled his Aussie stablemate and archrival in the points, the young Englishman set himself up nicely to try and nail down his first career F1 crown. Piastri, on the other hand will be desperate to reassert some kind of momentum with only four more races remaining in 2025, Norris having outscored him in every race since his last win in the Netherlands back on August 31st.
Perhaps more newsworthy than who earned the upper ranks of the starting grid was who didn’t, and chief among them was an astonishingly poor Q1 time by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen that mired him in P16 and knocked him out in the first round. It was a serious ding to the Dutchman’s underdog title aspirations and Red Bull will have to figure out how to make the car go faster overnight after dialing it in the wrong direction before quali and all while in parc fermé conditions. With potentially heavy weather forecast for Sunday’s race, they may be hoping for that rainy day so that Verstappen can potentially replicate his astonishing wet weather win from last year, when he stormed to victory from P17. The second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also struggled for grip and could not get out of Q2, with only the thirteenth fastest time on the board in that session.
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli put in a stonking effort to overhaul Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and take P2 on the grid, demoting Lecerc to P3 and the second row alongside the P4 Piastri. Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar continued his remarkable rookie campaign with a solid Q3 effort good enough for P5, bettering the second Merc of George Russell, who so struggled on the favored Soft Pirelli rubber that he actaully gambled on Mediums for his final run, to little or no appreciable effect.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Sao Paulo GP:
| # | DRIVER | TEAM | TIME | TYRE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
  |
McLaren | 1:09.511 |  |
| 2 |
  |
Mercedes | 1:09.685 | |
| 3 |
  |
Ferrari | 1:09.805 | |
| 4 |
  |
McLaren | 1:09.886 | |
| 5 |
  |
Racing Bulls | 1:09.931 | |
| 6 |
 |
Mercedes | 1:09.942 |  |
| 7 |
  |
Racing Bulls | 1:09.962 | |
| 8 |
 |
Haas | 1:09.977 | |
| 9 |
 |
Alpine | 1:10.002 | |
| 10 |
  |
Stake | 1:10.039 | |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at noon on ESPN2 here in the States. With some possibly wild weather forecast, it could be a very unpredictable race and maybe Vrstappen’s only chance to get back in the action. Norris, however, will be hoping for smooth sailing from the front as he looks to keep gapping teammate Piastri down the home stretch. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!