The World Cup is more open than ever throughout 2024. The classification of the Brazilian Grand Prix, which had to be postponed to this Sunday morning due to rain, has given a golden opportunity to Lando Norris to close the gap with the championship leader, Max Verstappen. The distance between Red Bull and McLaren is 43 points, but the Briton will start from pole in a qualy also marked by water and the Dutchman, who was twelfth, will start from seventeenth place due to a five-position penalty due to the change in his power unit.
Norris showed that his McLaren works in all conditions and hit the table with a final lap: 1m23s405. George Russell was close behind, finishing second, less than two tenths behind his compatriot.
Proof that the session was truly crazy is that Yuki Tsunoda completed the ‘top 3’. His teammate, Liam Lawson, also stood out and will start fifth. Among them will be Esteban Ocon (Alpine), while Charles Leclerc (6th) and Oscar Piastri (8th) were further behind. Seventh place went to Alex Albon, who had a bad accident in Q3 after a good lap. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who also crashed into the wall, will start ninth and tenth.
Five accidents
The rain caused several spins and crashes involving Colapinto (18th), Sainz (14th), Stroll (10th), Alonso (9th) and Albon (7th)
In the final stretch of Q2, everyone improved their times because the rain gave a truce and they went from extreme to intermediate. However, an accident by Stroll in turn 3 with less than two minutes remaining in the session forced the red flag to be raised and this prevented the triple world champion from completing his fastest lap, in which he had not been improving either.
The changing conditions at Interlagos therefore left a very atypical grid for this afternoon’s race (4:30 p.m.). There were up to five accidents, involving Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Alexander Albon. Hamilton fell in Q1 (16th) and Sainz was fourteenth after his crash in Q2. The Asturian driver will occupy ninth position.
For its part, Aston Martin seemed to benefit from the rain. After a very disappointing weekend, both cars entered Q3, with Alonso aiming high after achieving the second best time in Q2. However, on his second attempt in the subsequent session he lost the car at turn 12 and the Spaniard crashed into the wall. The green team mechanics will have to work piecework to arrive on time for the race.
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