McLaren's Lando Norris hits straight back after the disappointment of Friday in Brazil for his first pole for an F1 Sprint; Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso collided; watch Saturday evening's 24-lap Sprint at 6.30pm, with build-up from 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports F1
Saturday 4 November 2023 20:59, UK
Lando Norris made up for some of the disappointment of Friday evening's qualifying in Brazil by hitting straight back to beat Max Verstappen to pole for Saturday evening's Sprint at the Sao Paulo GP.
Having ended the opening day of track action in Brazil "gutted" to qualify only sixth for Sunday's main Grand Prix, Norris delivered on the pace he and McLaren had threatened on Friday to head the field in the Sprint Shootout.
The session had earlier been delayed at the end of the first knockout phase, SQ1, following a big crash for Alpine's Esteban Ocon after a collision with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
It is Norris' first pole for F1's short-form race but resurgent McLaren's second in the last three Sprint weekends. The 24-lap Sprint, which offers points to the top eight finishers, starts at 6.30pm live on Sky Sports F1.
Norris is yet to win either a Sprint or a Grand Prix in his F1 career so far.
"Honestly, it felt like one of the worst laps I've done, so I'm a little bit surprised, but it's a good surprise," said Norris. "I feel like we've made up for yesterday."
Verstappen, who has pole for Sunday, finished 0.061s behind Norris with his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez respectably close behind in third despite only having used soft tyres available for his final run.
George Russell edged out Lewis Hamilton to be the lead Mercedes on the grid in fourth, with last year's victors consistently a couple of tenths a lap away from the absolute front-runners so far but still in the mix.
Ferrari ran SQ3 and used soft tyres which contributed Charles Leclerc (seventh) and Carlos Sainz (ninth) each being outqualified by one AlphaTauri, who proved the surprise package of Saturday's Shootout after a double Q1 elimination at Interlagos not even 24 hours before.
Yuki Tsunoda will start up in sixth with Daniel Ricciardo eighth. Oscar Piastri, Norris' McLaren team-mate, was again only 10th for the second successive session, although he too ran used tyres in SQ3.
Polesitter Norris did receive a reprimand ahead of the Sprint for exceeding the maximum lap time on an out lap in SQ1.
Sao Paulo Sprint Shootout result - Top 10
1) Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:10.622
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +0.061
3) Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +0.134
4) George Russell, Mercedes, +0.235
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +0.318
6) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, +0.397
7) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +0.455
8) Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri, +0.500
9) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +0.504
10) Oscar Piastri, McLaren, +0.567
After the wild Sao Paulo weather made the headlines on Friday night, former Alpine team-mates Ocon and Alonso were involved in the weekend's most dramatic on-track moment so far in the closing moments of SQ1, at Turn Two.
Ocon, starting a fast lap as he fought to avoid an early exit, came up quickly behind a slower-moving Alonso, on a cool-down lap, exiting the Senna S with the Aston Martin appearing off the usual racing line to the right.
But the two came together as Alpine rear-right tagged Aston Martin front-left, sending the Alpine flying off track and into a hefty rearwards impact with the outside tyre barriers.
Replays showed that that the Alpine appeared to suffer oversteer going over the inside kerb. But over team radio, an unimpressed Ocon blamed his former team-mate - who he labelled an "idiot" - having seemingly felt that Alonso had not left him enough room on the inside to get through the corner without having to adjust his preferred line.
Ocon was cleared by doctors in a precautionary check up at the medical centre. Race stewards investigated the collision and ruled that neither driver was wholly or predominantly at fault.
After returning to the paddock, Ocon said suggestions he had caused the accident by losing control of his car were wrong.
"It was a big one, it was a hard impact so I'm feeling a bit sore after that one. But it doesn't matter, we'll go on racing," said the Frenchman.
"It's a difficult one to swallow because we were on for a good improvement on that lap and were going to go through to SQ2, but we found Fernando on the way.
"I heard people saying that I lost the car. It's not true, we had corrections like that throughout the whole paddock. Even on Lando's quickest lap, he had a correction there and ran wide like this.
"Fernando steered to the left in the middle of the corner, and didn't leave enough space, and we collided in the end."
Alonso saw it slightly differently, saying: "I haven't seen the replay yet, but someone told me he lost the car apparently a little bit. One of those situations - wrong place, wrong moment." =
Giving his view of the collision once seeing different angles on the world feed, Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle in commentary said: "The more I see it the more I think the majority of the incident was Esteban losing control of the car and having to scoop it up.
"He will say it was because Alonso's car was 'parked in the middle of the road'. Then I think there were some contributing circumstances from Fernando there: slow, didn't really move that far right, and was sort of giving a bit of left-hand lock. But he was going around a left-hand corner.
"I'll be surprised if anything more comes from that other than an unfortunate incident."
Four weeks after seeing rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri claim his first 'F1' win in the Qatar Sprint from pole, Norris now has his own golden chance to take a first such success at atmospheric Interlagos on Saturday evening.
The inevitable threat posed by Verstappen from just behind on the front row remains, of course, but McLaren's MCL60 has looked more than competitive against the Red Bull around undulating track in Norris' hands so far.
Asked about his chances in the 24-lap dash that now follows, the Briton said: "No idea. But the pace has been good all weekend. The car's been very strong. We're on the right track. It's a tough one, the Red Bulls are always quick, Max is always quick.
"So it's not going to be an easy race, but the pace is strong, so if we're going to have any chance, I'll give it my all."
There are eight points on offer for the winner of the Sprint, down to one point for eighth place.
Saturday November 4
Sunday November 5
F1 is in Brazil for the final leg of the Americas triple header and the last Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Watch every session from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday's race at 5pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW
