Piastri fastest in Sprint Qualifying, Norris two places ahead of Verstappen
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Oscar Piastri has won sprint qualifying at Interlagos, and will start from pole position in tomorrow's Sprint event. Lando Norris will join the Australian on the front row of the grid, while Charles Leclerc rounded off the Top 3.
Except for the two McLaren drivers, everybody had only a single shot in SQ3 at Interlagos. Norris could not win the session, but will start ahead of his title rival Verstappen on Saturday, as the Dutchman finished in P4. Carlos Sainz finished in P5, ahead of George Russell.
The fourth row of the grid is made up of Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson, Alex Albon finished in P9 after knocking out Hamilton in SQ2. After making a mistake in Sector 1, Oliver Bearman will start the Sprint from P10.
SQ2
In the second session, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez were on the edge of getting knocked out, and neither could make it through. Hamilton finished in P11, while Perez could not complete a second lap and finished in P13. Being a substitute for Kevin Magnussen, Bearman managed to defeat Hülkenberg and was the only Haas driver in SQ3.
OUT - P11 Hamilton, P12 Hülkenberg, P13 Perez, P14 Colapinto, P15 Bottas
SQ1
On medium tyres in the first session, the two Ferraris found themselves in a bit of trouble after their first runs were not successful, but both made it through comfortably in the end. Eventually, Norris by nearly eight tenths ahead of Piastri won this session, while the two Aston Martins, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Guanyu Zhou were eliminated after the first 12 minutes.
OUT - P16 Alonso, P17 Ocon, P18 Tsunoda, P19 Stroll, P20 Zhou