Hard crash, disaster for Alpine! Ocon collided with Alonso and broke his formula. Who won the sprint shootout?

The Brazilian Grand Prix is the last one this year that sees a sprint format race weekend. After qualifying on Friday, the so-called Sprint Shootout, or qualifying shootout, was on the agenda. That offered, among other things, a hard crash for Esteban Ocon.

Shootout 1

The first part of the sprint shootout didn’t really bring any surprises. Esteban Ocon was the biggest drama in SQ1, as a result of a driving mistake he crashed his monopost.

The French Alpine driver was on his fast lap, whereupon Fernando Alonso tried to give him enough room to pass him on the exit of Turn 3.

However, Ocon slipped on the kerb, colliding with Alonso and subsequently sending his car into the barrier. You can watch the whole situation in the attached video below.

Naturally, race management resorted to red flags and a suspension of the sprint shootout. Moreover, due to the time remaining, the first part of the race was not restarted.

The tail of the starting field at the start of Saturday’s sprint was occupied by both Williams riders. Zhou Kuan-yu started eighteenth, Lance Stroll seventeenth and the aforementioned Ocon set the sixteenth fastest time.

Shootout 2

The second ten-minute segment was dominated by Lando Norris, who set a time of 1:11.221. Sergio Pérez was only nine thousandths of a second behind him, with Max Verstappen finishing third. A stunning fourth place in SQ2 went to Daniel Ricciardo.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, as well as Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri and AlphaTauri’s second driver Juki Cunoda, also advanced to the third part of the sprint shootout.

Fifteenth-placed Alonso, whose car was not repaired by mechanics after his collision with Ocon, understandably did not set any timed lap. Valtteri Bottas will start Saturday’s sprint as fourteenth, Pierre Gasly thirteenth, Nico Hülkenberg twelfth and Kevin Magnussen eleventh.

Shootout 3

The final part of the sprint shootout started practically at the very end of the set eight minutes. This was because the teams needed to save their tyres for the evening sprint and Sunday’s grand prix.

So the drivers had only one shot and it was Norris’ best shot. The McLaren driver set a time of 1:10.622. Verstappen will start the sprint second, 61 thousandths of a second behind the Briton Norris.

Very good laps were run by Pérez and George Russell, but in the end it was enough for the pair to finish third and fourth respectively.

Lewis Hamilton will start Saturday’s sprint in fifth, but he lost three tenths of a second. A great result for the AlphaTauri team (Cunoda sixth, Ricciardo eighth). But more was expected from Ferrari (Leclerc seventh, Sainz ninth). Piastri rounded off the top ten.

Source: F1 TV