The 25-year-old finished ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, while Oscar Piastri could only finish in P3 to round out the top three.

George Russell and Fernando Alonso impressed with P4 and P5 finishes, respectively, while a disappointed Max Verstappen shook his head in the cockpit as he could only take sixth place.

Lance Stroll, Charles Lecler ,Isack Hadjar and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten for Saturday's sprint race.

Ferrari had some serious struggles throughout the session, and Lewis Hamilton could only qualify in P11 for the sprint race, resulting in a second consecutive SQ2 knockout for the seven-time world champion.

The Scuderia misjudged the traffic at Interlagos, which meant Hamilton did not get to the line before the chequered flag fell, which did not give the Brit a chance to set one final lap.

A spin from Leclerc brought out double-yellow flags, meaning plenty of others could not improve their lap times, meaning Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, home favourite Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman were eliminated from SQ2.

Interlagos played host to its fifth sprint qualifying session, the only Grand Prix that has hosted a sprint race weekend every season since its inception in 2021.

It was another disappointing session for Yuki Tsunoda after crashing out from the only practice session of the weekend, only finishing P18 at the end of SQ1.

After the news of his contract extension with Alpine, Franco Colapinto could not continue the good news as he finished in P16, ahead of Liam Lawson in 17th. Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz will lock out the back row of the grid for Saturday's sprint race after qualifying P19 and P20, respectively.