Official F1 Journal Friday Round Up- Interlargos

Welcome to the Friday Round up for the Brazilian Sprint Weekend. Its always an exciting weekend at Interlargos and for the 3rd consecutive year its hosts the last Sprint Weekend of the year. Lets have a look at today's action.

Practice- Rain possibly incoming!

The session started and all the car were straight out on track on the Hard tyre compound, with the threat of the infamous Brazilian rain coming. 
Verstappen was the first man to set a time with a 1.14.9, 3 seconds down on Kevin Magnussen's 2022 pole lap so there was lots of time to find for all. 
53 to go Verstappen was over 1.041 second up on all other cars but his team mate who was within 0.3 of the 3 time World Champion. After there first timed laps the 2 Aston Martin's returned to the pits for front suspension changes on both while all other cars stayed out on track, with Alonso back out with 45 minutes left of the session. 

Perez continued to get closer to Verstappen, setting a time just 0.025 off his team mate and the other cars started to creep towards the 2 Redbull's. Russell & Hamilton the 2 closest to Verstappen & Perez with George just 0.066 behind the fastest man & Hulkenberg managing the 5th fastest time so far 0.561 off 1st. 
40 minutes left on the clock and after his suspension change Alonso only managed 1 flying lap before picking up a puncture and being told to return to the pits.
The Mclaren's who came into the weekend optimistic for a great result were running 9th & 10th with Alex Albon setting the 10th fastest time.
37 minutes to go & Yuki Tsunoda is the first man to put on the Medium tyres and immediately tops the times going 0.336 faster than Verstappen on the Hards while his team mate Ricciardo was stuck in the pits with a broken floor. 
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Russell was the next man to set a time on the Medium tyres and went over a second faster than 2nd place man Verstappen(still on the hard tyres) and a recovered Alonso went 2nd with 31 minutes on the clock beating Max on the Hard tyre by 0.200 on the same tyre. 
As the 2nd half of the session began last years Pole man Kevin Magnussen put the Soft tyres on and jumped from last in the times to 3rd only slower than Russell & Alonso,  as his team mate Nico Hulkenberg(also on the Soft tyre) made contact with the flying Mclaren of Norris, appearing oblivious to Lando coming and turning in on him, making contact with his right sidepod. 
Gasly & Ocon found some pace going upto 8th & 9th as the wind started to really pick up and the Ferrari's of Leclerc and Sainz found themselves down in 12th & 13th as Nico Hulkenberg put his HAAS ahead of his team mate and up to 2nd in the timings on his soft tyres. 

20 minutes to go and the whole grid with the exception of the 2 HAAS on the Softs and Zhou & Tsunoda on the Medium, are running the Hard tyres, saving the faster compounds for the rest of the weekend. 
16 minutes left & Logan Sargeant had a moment at Turn 1 and went straight on and took to the run off area, confused at why his Williams had lost grip on turn in.on his fresh Soft tyres, also running the soft was his team mate Alex Albon as Stroll and Bottas started their Medium tyre runs. Albon went 3rd after his 1st flying lap on his softs as Logan Sargeant has a rear suspension issue  causing his front tyres to lift off the ground making it very difficult to drive. 

Mclaren split their cars running by having Norris on the Medium and Piastri run the Soft on his first weekend racing at this track and although going purple in sector 1 & 2 he bailed into the pits as the rest of the grid began their Medium tyre running except the 2 Redbull's, Alonso and Leclerc who continued their Hard tyre running. Stroll jumped up to 4th on his mediums, followed by Gasly on the same tyre. ​

5 to go and the Mclaren's found themselves down in 16th & 20th as Sainz gooes top on the Soft tyre only beating Russell by 0.169 on his Mediums. Leclerc was the next man to set a time on the Softs tyres but didnt manage to beat his team mate going 0.108 slower than his team mate. 
The session ended with the Mclaren's bottom of the times and the Redbulls's not much better down in 16th & 18th after only running the Hard tyres. So going into Qualifying later on in the day with the threat of rain on the horizon it really was wide open for Qualifying later in the day. 

Practice Result

1 SAI (S)
2 LEC (S)
3 RUS (M)
4 HUL (S)
5 ALB (H)
6 STR (H)
7 GAS (M)
8 ZHO (S)
9 SAR (S)
10 MAG (S)
11 ALO (H)
12 HAM (H)
13 TSU (M)
14 RIC (H)
15 OCO (M)
​16 VER (H)
17 BOT (M)
18 PER (H)
19 NOR (H)
​20 PIA (H)

Qualifying 

Q1- All on Soft Tyres

Q1 Oscar Piastri lead the pack out on used Soft tyres to the thunderous applause of the brilliant Brazilian crowd, Norris beat his team mates 1st lap time, Vertsappen could manage 2nd behind the Mclaren finding himself +0.310 slower. Hamilton followed going purple in sector 1 and managing 2nd again behind Norris, Magnussen started the session well going 3rd fastest, beating Max Vertsappen, Russell's first run was only good enough for 4th but while he was doing his best on track he was under investigation for impeding at the pit exit and not following the race directors notes(you can build a gap at pit exit but you must stay left to allow cars to pass if you choose to do so). After the first runs both Ferrari's found themselves in the drop zone until their 2nd runs when Leclerc was the first man to beat the time of Norris and Sainz went 4th.

10 minutes to go and Piastri was on a blistering lap going purple in sectors 1 & 2 but had a slow sector 3 and could only manage 2nd, Stroll finding form in his Aston Martin put himself 3rd, Perez could only go 8th, Hamilton jumped to 6th, Gasly 7th and the top 14 was covered by just 0.679 of a second meaning nobody was safe when the final runs began. With 3 minutes to go the top 7 were in the pits until a rapid Alex Albon went 4th in his Williams forcing the everyone except Leclerc and Piastri out for another lap.

As they crossed the line Sainz could only go 6th, Sargeant 15th with cars behind him going faster meant his Qualifying was over, Hamilton jumped to 2nd after setting a new purple sector 1, Russell went fastest, Hulkenberg set a brilliant lap  to go 4th, Magnussen got out of Q1 safely setting a time good enough for 6th, Alonso narrowly beat him taking 6th place from the HAAS driver, Ricciardo couldn't improve and ended the session in 17th, Tsunoda could only mange 16th, Verstappen who didn't feel safe went 2nd fastest right at the end of the session and Perez narrowly got through in 13th. 

Q1 Result 

1 RUS
2 VER
3 LEC
4 HUL
5 PIA
6 STR
7 ALO
8 MAG
9 HAM
10 ALB
11 NOR
12 SAI
13 PER
14 OCO
15 GAS
16 TSU
17 RIC
18 BOT
19 SAR
​20 ZHO

Q2- All on Soft Tyre 

As Q2 started we got reports of rain falling in the pitlane. Verstappen was the first man to cross the line to start the lap on his new soft tyres, Perez couldn't beat his time and went 2nd, Stroll went 3rd,Hamilton 4th behind the Aston Martin, Norris went 2nd just 0.161 behind Verstappen, Piastri stole 3rd, Gasly took 8th & Albon 9thbefore being beaten by the HAAS cars of Hulkenberg and Magnussen who went 8th & 9th pushing Gasly and Albon in to the drop out zone.

Hamilton and Russell were the 1st to go out for a 2nd run with Hamilton juping to 4th only to be beaten Russell to went 2nd fastest.
6 minutes to go and the 2 Ferraris's started their laps, Leclerc's lap put him 5th while Sainz finally found his speed and beating Russell's 2nd run to go 2nd fastest. 4 to go nobody felt safe and everyone came out to do a final run.
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Alonso went 2nd fastest briefly before Norris set a brilliant 1.10.021( what would later become the fastest lap of qualifying. Perez went up to 3rd, and Verstappen could only mange 2nd fastest. Norris went in to the pits while Max and Redbull thought they needed 1 more lap to get through. Ocon could go fatest enough to get through to the final round of qualifying, Hamilton went 6th and was safe, Gasly could only manage 13th, Leclerc went 7th fastest and Piastri who was very close to the cut off was 9th as the session ended. Q2 ended with Norris top, Verstappen 2nd, Perez 3rd, Albon had set time good enough for Q3 but sadly it was deleted for track limits and he was dropped to 15th. 

Q2 Result

1 NOR 
2 VER
3 PER
4 ALO
5 SAI
6 HAM
7 LEC
8 RUS
9 PIA
10 STR
11 HUL
12 OCO
13 GAS
14 MAG
​15 ALB

Q3- All on Soft Tyres

Q3 The rain had arrived and every second the clock counted down the clouds and sky got darker and the wind picked up rapidly. Verstappen and Leclerc were the first out and it was a great call to go early because the weather was worsening. Verstappen went top with a 1.10.727, Leclerc who ran 2nd on the road took 2nd place, Stroll set a great lap to take 3rd, his team mate Alonso went 4th as Piastri went off due to the wind, Sainz also had a moment on the curbs in the same place and after the first runs the rain came with a vengeance. It was so bad there was no chance of improving so there was no chance of any cars going out and with 4 minutes 19 on the clock the session was Red flagged and Max Verstappen took pole in Brazil, followed by Leclerc in 2nd and a very a.happy Lance Stroll in 3rd. Norris who had shown great pace and was tipped for pole could only mange 7th with his teammate down in 10th. 

Q3- Result

1 VER
​2 LEC
3 STR
4 ALO
5 HAM
6 RUS
7 NOR
8 PER
9 SAI
​10 PIA

Post Qualifying Penalties 

Nico Hulkenberg got No further action for his incident with Lando Norris in Practice earlier in the day 
Russell, Ocon & Gasly got 2 place grid penalty for Sunday's Grand Prix for impeding at the pit exit and not following the race directors instructions to stay to the left to allow other drivers past if you choose to create a gap in the pit exit. Russell now starts 8th, Ocon and Gasly will start the race 14th & 15th