There was no doubting which team had a firm grip on proceedings in qualifying for Saturday's São Paulo sprint race, with McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris topping all three rounds of the late afternoon session.
Piastri used an additional set of tyres in Q3 to set a time of 1:08.899s to claim the sprint pole by 0.029s from Norris, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen set to start the sprint from the second row.
Lewis Hamilton failed to make the final cut meaning the Mercedes will start tomorrow's race from P11, with Sergio Perez also failing to make it through to Q3 in the Red Bull.
Three British drivers had been top in the first and only qualifying of the weekend at the 4.309km Autódromo José Carlos Pace on Friday. Lando Norris had been top for McLaren ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, and Oliver Bearman in third sitting in for a poorly Kevin Magnussen at Haas. It had been a quiet start for Ferrari, while Red Bull had failed to elicit initial pace from either of their drivers.
It was much cooler and more overcast than it had been for free practice earlier in the day. When the lights went green at the end of pit lane to get the first round of sprint qualifying underway, Ferrari pair Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were First on deck with the Monegasque taking first blood.
They were soon displaced by Pierre Gasly in the Alpine, then by Williams' Alex Albon briefly taking charge, before George Russell took control on 1:10.870s with Lewis Hamilton riding shotgun. Moments later, in a rapidly changing situation, it was Norris' turn to take control on 1:10.265s.
More flying laps saw Oscar Piastri jump to the top ahead of a new effort from Leclerc, with Nico Hulkenberg picking up third ahead of the latest from Sainz. RB's Liam Lawson was ahead of Max Verstappen, pushing Norris down to seventh. After that burst of activity there was a brief lull as the cars headed back to pit lane for new tyres and adjustments for their final Q1 push.
There was then a flurry of faster laps that saw Norris go top with a time of 1:09.477s, eight tenths quicker than the latest from his McLaren team mate Piastri. Two tenths covered the rest of the top ten which consisted of Albon, Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Verstappen, Oliver Bearman, Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto and Russell.
Hamilton just made it through to the second round in 13th, with Valtteri Bottas surviving on the bubble in 15th. Those missing the cut in the bottom five were Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll, together with Zhou Guanyu who was two and half seconds behind and dead last in the Sauber.
The skies were growing darker and there was even a hint of precipitation in the air and a noticeable cooling of temperature. Eight cars were quick to head back out for the second round: Russell was keen to lay down the gauntlet with an initial time of 1:09.683s which neither Gasly nor Bottas could match.
It wasn't a problem for Norris who flew to the top on a 1:09.063, six tenths ahead of the Mercedes. Piastri could only manage third, six tenths behind his team mate with Sainz now the meat in the papaya sandwich - until Verstappen leapt into second before the briefest of mid-session intervals.
There were no times yet from either Haas car or from Lawson, who were gambling everything on a single roll of the dice as the cars spilled back out onto the track for one last push. Also at risk of elimination if they couldn't find more time on their final runs were the Williams pair of Albon and Colapinto.
Lawson managed to scramble to ninth and Bearman jumped to fifth, but neither Colapinto nor Perez were able to complete a final timed lap and missed the cut as a consequence. Hulkenberg was also too slow and finished in 12th, but the big surprise was Hamilton finishing in 11th which meant that he missed the transfer by a tenth of a second.
Safely through to the final top ten pole shootout round were Norris and Piastri, who had finished ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. Sainz was fifth from Gasly, Bearman getting nudged down to P7 in the final action but still ahead of Russell, Lawson and Albon.
Piastri was quick to get going again having switched to soft tyres for Q3, one eye on the increasing clouds and wind. Norris had a similar thought about the conditions and was hot on the Aussie's tale, with Albon quick to join them. Norris was by far the quickest on 1:08.928s and took early provisional pole from Piastri, with Albon a second back from the papaya pair and not planning to run again.
With a little over three minutes remaining, the rest of the cars started to spill out. Even the McLaren cars were back in play rather than sitting back and watching. An early mistake running wide at turn 2 meant Bearman was immediately out of the running, his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Piastri had gambled on having thrown a new set of tyres into his campaign. He duly went top on 1:08.899s, pipping Norris by 0.029s. The Briton hadn't taken new tyres and pitted before the end of his lap, but retained second from Leclerc and Verstappen. Sainz was fifth from Russell, Gasly and Lawson leaving Albon one place better that expected in P9 after Bearman lost his lap time.
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