Verstappen wins Qualifying washed away by rain at Interlagos, Leclerc P2

Max Verstappen has won Qualifying at the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and will start from pole position on Sunday. The Dutchman winning lap time was a 1:10.272. Charles Leclerc will line up alongside this year’s world champion, while surprisingly so, Lance Stroll rounded off the Top 3 at Interlagos.

Max Verstappen will start from pole position after a qualifying session washed away by rain in Sao Paulo. Each driver had a single shot in Q3, and Verstappen was able to make the most of it.

Charles Leclerc finished in P2 ahead of the two Aston Martins, as Lance Stroll was able to defeat his teammate, Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest out of the two Mercedes, and will start from fifth place ahead of teammate George Russell.

Former teammates Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz will line up on the fourth row of the grid and Sergio Perez finished ninth. Oscar Piastri made a mistake on his only lap, and finished Q3 without a time recorded in the final session of the day.

Q2

Some rain patches according to Red Bull arrived at the track during the beginning of Q2, but it has not reached its full potential by the end of the second session of qualifying and everyone was able to complete their final laps on a set of soft tyres.

Lando Norris was the quickest in Q2 and the teams that are currently in the Top 5 spots of the constructors’ championship had all 10 drivers in Q3. Lance Stroll spent the majority of the final minutes in P10, but Alexander Albon, the two Haas, and the two Alpines were not able to knock him out. 

OUT - P15 Albon, P14 Magnussen, P13 Gasly, P12 Ocon, P11 Hulkenberg 

Q1

Q1 began after the opening title with race control signalling that the session was delayed. After 15 minutes of the session being put on hold, qualifying got underway in Brazil. The first incident happened in the pit lane, as Esteban Ocon was on his way to the exit, he almost ran into the back of Russell. The latter will be investigated after the session.

Having rain around the corner and constant track evolution, drivers were constantly on the track trying to improve, it was a tight finish. Eventually, no frontrunner was caught out, the two Alfa Romeos, the two AlphaTauris and Logan Sargeant got eliminated by fine margins.

OUT - P20 Zhou, P19 Sargeant, P18 Bottas, P17 Ricciardo, P16 Tsunoda