FORMULA 1
 Credit: Steven Tee In a drama-filled qualifying session on Sunday morning at Interlagos that saw five red flags, Lando Norris has taken a significant pole position for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Norris would take such a significant pole position in the context of the world championship as Max Verstappen would be knocked out of Q2 along with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. Verstappen was set to undertake a five-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix anyway for an engine change, but he would be set to start 17th! Lando Norris would take his third pole position in the last four Grand Prix in a British 1-2 as George Russell of Mercedes produced a brilliant effort to qualify second and the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix winner would join Lando Norris on the front row. A really mixed up qualifying saw five red flags across the session and it would see Yuki Tsunoda qualify third in his greatest ever qualifying session with both RB drivers in the top five as Liam Lawson also with his best qualifying in fifth place. Esteban Ocon was fourth for Alpine. Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Alex Albon were the five drivers who crashed in the session and they respectively brought out a red flag each. How the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix qualifying session unfoldedFollowing the conclusion of Saturday's sprint race, attention would turn to the Grand Prix affiliated sessions for the weekend with the qualifying to complete Saturday's track action, and would set the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix. However, there would be sufficient and heavy rain fall throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening which would heavily delay the qualify the qualifying for a long period of time as the event organisers, the FIA and FIA race director Niels Wittich decided to postpone the qualifying and move it to Sunday morning. With another wet forecast on Sunday, there would be an adjustment in the race start time too. Qualifying would begin at the early start time of 7:30am local time (10:30 UK time) and the race would be brought forward by 90 minutes for a 12:30pm local time start (15:30 UK time). As Formula 1 would return to the Interlagos circuit on Sunday morning, the track would still be wet as would the weather but it would be a lot better off than the day prior when qualifying was originally scheduled.
With more rain in "15 minute or so" according to Pierre Gasly's race engineer drivers would want to get n with it as soon as possible as there would be a queue of drivers at the start of the qualifying session at the end of the pit lane whilst they were all waiting for the green light. The green light would eventually come on at the end of the pit lane which would signal the start of the session and all drivers would immediately head onto the track and drivers were not wanting to waste time. Liam Lawson, Zhou Guanyu and Lance Strol would all have moments at the end of sector 2 and the start of sector 3 but would not have any crashes or rule themselves out of contention. In the early lap times it would be a surprise driver who would have the top time in the first eight minutes of the session and that would be in the form of Esteban Ocon who would go to the top of the timing sheets. Ocon of Alpine would be top from former teammate Fernando Alonso, who put his Aston Martin second with Yuki Tsunoda in third place but times were predicted to improve but with little grip on the circuit due to the wet weather conditions. Soon with just short of nine minutes remaining, Q1 would have a stoppage with a red flag being brought out for Franco Colapinto who had found the wall at turn 3 that in the wet conditions of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix became a car park behind the barriers for broken down formula 1 cars. Franco Colapinto at the circuit closest to his home nation of Argentina found the barrier and it would see a red flag brought out so the car could be removed safely as the track surface was slippery and unpredictable. Yuki Tsunoda and Charles Leclerc had made it up to the top two spots in the list as the session would go back to green flag conditions with the two Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, both needing to find a lap time. Lap times would improve but some drivers would be struggling to find grip and improvements to their laps, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg would be examples of this. Hamilton would only improve to 14th position but would be beaten on his lap time by George Russell, by quite a big amount as Russell would go third fastest overall with Lewis Hamilton needing work to do. Before long and the chequered flag would be out Bottas and Hamilton would improve to get themselves out of the drop zone for the time being but both of them had to worry about Lando Norris and Liam Lawson who were improving behind them. Bottas would be safe but Lewis Hamilton would not be! Lewis Hamilton, who has been so impressive in wet weather conditions throughout his entire career has suffered a huge shock in being eliminated in Q1 along with the two Haas cars of Oliver Bearman and Hulkenberg, Williams' Franco Colapinto and the Sauber of Zhou Guanyu. Max Verstappen would set the fastest time by the end from Williams' Alex Albon and Mercedes' George Russell.
With the first five cars from the session eliminated and with big shocks in the first part of qualifying and nearly a massive shock in the form of Lando Norris, Q2 was bound to produce exciting action once again. The rain would have eased off a slight bit but would not have eased off completely, although intermediates could very much be needed for the second half of the session. Soon enough, the green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and Q2 would be underway. The crossover looked imminent as Max Verstappen was provisionally quickest after the first lap times from drivers on the full wet tyre compounds and the Red Bull driver, who would incur a five-place grid penalty for an Internal Combustion Engine change (ICE). Oscar Piastri of McLaren would be a driver who would not bother with the full wet tyres and would go straight onto the intermediate tyres and it would pay off for him as on his second lap he would go to the top of the time sheets. The time for intermediates would definitely be upon the drivers. George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Liam Lawson would all be raring to go on intermediates although it was still a fair amount of rain and wet weather. However, not everyone would get a lap time in immediately on intermediates as the first of two red flags of Q2 would be brought out and it would be for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz who won the race last time out in Mexico would be eliminated in Q2 in Sao Paulo one week on from taking pole position. Time would be spent while the car would be removed and soon enough the session would be back underway with intermediate tyres still being the preferred choice of tyre for the drivers who were remaining in qualifying. Norris would be the first driver back out once the session had restarted and he found himself at risk of being eliminated as he was 11th provisionally and would need a lap to progress through to Q3, in a hugely significant weekend in the championship. Charles Leclerc would be at risk as he only sat ninth. Lando Norris would get himself out of danger and would put himself in a great position as he would go third fastest overall. The two Visa RB drivers would also improve as Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda would find themselves into the top 10 as the two Red Bull drivers would find themselves in the drop zone at risk. Fernando Alonso would go fastest but soon there would be a red flag which would be critical as only 45 seconds would be remaining of the session and therefore it would not be restarted. Lance Stroll would be the driver to cause as he found the wall at turn 3, which was where Colapinto went off in Q1. Thrilling drama and therefore both Red Bull cars would be out of qualifying. Verstappen who would have to take a five-place grid penalty for an engine change for the start of the Grand Prix. He would be way down the order with his direct championship rival Lando Norris progressing comfortbaly. Verstappen and Perez would both be out of qualifying along with Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly with Valtteri Bottas missing out on Q3 by just eight thousandths of a second. A really brilliant effort from the driver of Kick Sauber who have struggled with pace all year round.
RSoon enough it would be time for Q3 with the top 10 drivers who made it through from Q2 would be having the chance to fight it out for pole position. The start to the session would be slightly delayed as the track marshals were clearing up the debris and Lance Stroll's car from the collision he had at the end of Q2. As Lance Stroll made it through to Q3, he would not participate and therefore it would just be nine drivers who would be able to take part in the Q3 session which would be the fight for pole position. Eventually the green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and the session would be underway with the drivers pouring out onto the circuit in potential important laps with red flags having disrupted the previous two sessions before Q3. Eight minutes remaining and the times were set to constantly improve as the drivers were trying to get their tyres worked into the correct temperature to aid the in completing faster lap times. Lando Norris would be the driver with provisional pole in the first lap ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in the RB and Oscar Piastri, Norris' teammate. Piastri would then soon go back to the top but he would be beaten by thw Williams of Alex Albon and then his teammate Lando Norris who was back on provisional pole. Running would then be halted as there would be another red flag! This time the red flag would be for the other Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso! The two-time world champion would find the wall at the end of the second sector and it would be fair whack for the front end of the car with the front suspension being ripped off. This would cause delay the session and more repairs for the Aston Martin mechanics to do but soon the session would be back underway as George Russell would be the lead car as most of the drivers would head out onto the circuit immediately. There would be seven minutes remaining, The second push lap for the drivers would be the one that would carry the most weight as the drivers would have to work their tyres back up to temperature once again especially for the drivers who were queuing up at the end of the pit lane and waiting for a lengthy amount of time. Tsunoda had been having a great session but would have a spin at turn 4 and did a remarkable job in keeping it fully out of the gravel and it was so close to the end of the qualifying session for the RB driver. However the session would be stopped for another incident all on its own and it was a huge crash involving Alex Albon! He was pushing the limit too hard and would spin off into the barriers at turn 1 at high speed causing huge damage to his Williams machine it was a huge crash and repairing it before the Grand Prix seemed very unlikely. Eventually the session would be restarted and it would be Esteban Ocon who would be the driver first onto the circuit as he was at the front of the queue of just four of the seven remaining drivers who were still able to compete in the session. George Russell would still be in the pit lane as would be the two RB cars, both drivers were going for just one flying lap but would it pay off for them? Lando Norris would be flying along and the McLaren driver would improve his lap time and go to provisional pole and Oscar Piastri would have not the greatest lap time and as he started his second lap time he would make a mistake into turn 1 and that would be qualifying over as the chequered flag would come out. RB would do absolutely brilliantly and their drivers would shine on their one flying lap each as both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda would put themselves both above Alex Albon's previous lap time as also Esteban Ocon's Alpine would go above the Williams too to split the RB drivers! What drama to end the session! Oscar Piastri in the McLaren could only settle for eighth place and it would be four constructors in the top five positions at the end of qualifying as George Russell would put himself to second on the grid and Charles Leclerc would go to sixth ahead of Albon's lap. It would be a British 1-2 by the end of the drama as Lando Norris took pole position for the third time in just four Grand Prix. What a fantastic effort from the McLaren who almost was eliminated in Q1 managed to get himself through both of the sessions were he was up against it and pulled through to take what could be such a significant Grand Prix in the context of the World Championship. Norris was ahead of Russell with Yuki Tsunoda qualifying in the top three for the first time in his Formula 1 career. Alpine's Esteban Ocon put in a great qualifying as he would end fourth ahead of Liam Lawson who managed his greatest ever qualifying as he completed the top five in fifth place. Charles Leclerc would be sixth ahead of Alex Albon, whether the Williams driver is to make the start remains unclear as Oscar Piastri and the two Aston Martin cars, Fernando Alonso then Lance Stroll, completed the top 10 in Q3. 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship: Round 21 - Sao Paulo Grand Prix qualifying classification
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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