Just like no one will match the performance of Red Bull this season, taking the drivers’ and constructors’ titles, nobody could beat Charles Leclercpoleman of the year with nine out of 20. The Brazilian Grand Prix represented a special race for the Monegasque and Ferrari in the fight for second place, given that it also awards the points from the last Sprint Race.
But a surprise was in store at Interlagos: the unexpected pole position for Kevin Magnussen and Haas. With a time of 1:11.674, the 30-year-old Dane will start the fast race from the front row with Max Verstappen alongside him, after a red flag and rain changed the outlook for Q3.
In the first training session, Red Bull had anticipated that it would be difficult to overtake him when Checo Pérez stopped the clock at 1:11.853 on his best lap around the São Paulo circuit, but he was only four thousandths of a second behind Leclerc and for eight with his teammate, Verstappen.
With these premises, and rain that began to fall on the Brazilian track an hour before qualifying, many drivers -14 lined up in the pit lane- rushed to go out on intermediate tires in Q1, with unfavorable weather forecasts.
The first time went into the hands of Leclerc, despite having to correct the car after the Herradura area, with an initial record of 1:19.191. Although Verstappen soon lost him by 228 thousandths (1:18.495), just eight thousandths quicker than his Czech teammate a few minutes later, Fernando Alonso then clocked an astonishing 1:18.412 to be fastest with 10 minutes to go. end. .
With the track increasingly dry, Alpha Tauri bet on Pierre Gasly’s car and put red tires on him to go through to Q2, as he was in a risky 14th place. While in front Verstappen and Hamilton (1:18.051) alternated the best time -always with the intermediates-, the Frenchman set the first reference with soft tyres, 1:20.703, with many complications to keep the car within the limits of the track . However, on his second lap, which he will race for Alpine next year, he broke records and set the fastest time (1:17.626).
With Gasly getting faster (1:16.557), the pitlane began to fill up with cars swapping the intermediate tires for reds. And that’s how Alonso managed to lower it by 380 thousandths and then Lando Norris broke those numbers to position himself on the provisional 1 with a time of 1:14.381.
At that time of changes, Leclerc and Sainz were out of the qualifying positions and in the pits they did not define what to do. So, the last minute was all or nothing.
With the cars warming up on the red tyres, the exciting finale of Q1 saw the eliminated Nicholas Latifi (16th, Williams), Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas (17th and 18th with Alfa Romeo), Yuki Tsunoda (19th, Alpha Tauri) and Mick Schumacher (20th Haas) and the best, Norris, with a time of 1:13.106, almost two seconds behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, 15th and last classified with the other McLaren.
In the second stage of qualifying, the DRS was enabled and the controls on each radio repeated ‘push hard’ to warm up the soft tires enough to move from the top ten to Q3. After some rather high opening times, Verstappen slowed the clock to 1:11.670, which Norris improved by 0.099.
With seven minutes remaining in Q2 and a persistent drizzle, Verstappen was first (1:11.318), while Mercedes were shockingly out, with Russell 13th and Hamilton 15th. Two minutes later and with free air, the ex Williams was the first to improve and 157 thousandths behind the Dutchman; then, the seven-time English champion emulated him and reached 221, leaving Sainz’s Ferrari at risk in tenth place.
Despite Vettel knocking the Spaniard out of the standings with two minutes and a fraction to go, Q2 had also salvaged a captivating result. Sainz moved up to second place, just nine thousandths behind Verstappen and 69 quicker than Leclerc, who was third in the other Ferrari. The German, on the other hand, went wide in the S of Senna and was eliminated in 13th place together with the other Aston Martin, that of Lance Stroll (15th), as well as Albon (11th, Williams), Gasly (12th ) and Ricciardo (14th).
In very difficult track conditions and with the rain getting closer and closer, Ferrari made the wrong decision and Leclerc was the only driver to start on the intermediate tyre. “Am I the only one interested?” the Monegasque asked his track engineer, who replied that “I thought so”. When he was going through turn 12, they called him to the pits to correct the mistake and change the tyres.
It was then that the red flag surprised everyone. With Kevin Magnussen on pole for a time of 1:11.674, 203 thousandths better than Verstappen’s initial attempt, Russell -who was third- lost control of his Mercedes and plunged into the wet lake eight minutes and 10 seconds from the finish .
The session resumed a few minutes later and Checo Pérez (9th) was the only one who had the courage to take to the track with the intermediate tyres. But unable to improve performance due to the rain, he returned to the pit lane, where all the drivers were starting to get out of their cars.
With two minutes to go and people in the stands were getting wet, honorary citizen Hamilton gave the Interlagos spectators joy by going out for one last lap, while in the Haas garage they celebrated the most unexpected pole position of the season.
Source: Clarin
