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Lando Norris will start from pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix after a truncated qualifying session in wet conditions which saw five red flags.
F1: McLaren’s Lando Norris celebrates after qualifying in pole position for Brazilian GP (AP)
McLaren’s Lando Norris took an emphatic pole position at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday after Red Bull rival Max Verstappen qualified only 17th in a wet and crash-strewn session at Interlagos.
George Russell will join his fellow-Briton on the front row for Mercedes in a session postponed from Saturday due to heavy rain, with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda a stunning third and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon fourth.
Championship leader Max Verstappen, who is 44 points clear of Norris at the top of the standings, was running 12th when the second qualifying session was red-flagged which means that, with a five-place penalty for fitting a sixth engine, he will start 17th in the Grand Prix later on Sunday.
Verstappen was incensed after the red flag was signalled some 40 seconds after Lance Stroll hit the wall, which ruled out the chances of restarting.
“It’s just, the car hits the wall, it needs to be a straight red,” he told Sky.
“I don’t understand why it needs to take 30, 40 seconds for the red flag to come out.
“I don’t know, honestly? It’s so stupid to talk about. It’s ridiculous. Our focus now is on the race, what’s happened happened.”
Team boss Christian Horner said it was “hugely frustrating”.
“It was obviously a big accident, one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit, 40 seconds it took to throw the red flag. It’s the second day in a row now that we have had very late calls,” he complained.
Norris was in danger of being eliminated from the first session of qualifying which had been held over from Saturday because of the weather but held his nerve in his McLaren and with a change to intermediate tyres dominated the next two sessions.
“There was a lot going on today but I’m super, super happy because I was struggling at the start of qualifying,” Norris said.
He will start alongside George Russell’s Mercedes with Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon on the second row of the grid.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri qualified eighth with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso ninth, despite crashing in Q3 and triggering another red flag period, and Stroll 10th.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez qualified 13th and Sainz 14th.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton struggled in his Mercedes and didn’t make it into the second session and will start from 15th.
(With inputs from Agencies)