McLaren dominated the sprint qualifying. Piastri wins a close battle for first place, Pérez fights for the seat

Formula 1 has the last race of the current triple-header on the schedule this weekend, namely the Brazilian Grand Prix. Friday’s action concluded with sprint qualifying, which was won by Oscar Piastri and he will start Saturday’s sprint from first place. McLaren thus completely dominated Friday’s programme.

• Formula 1 has the last race of the current triple-header on the schedule this weekend, the Brazilian Grand Prix
• Friday’s action at the Brazilian Grand Prix concluded with sprint qualifying
• Oscar Piastri took the top spot on the grid for Saturday’s sprint race

The sprint weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix concludes with the currently running triple-header, which began after the autumn break with the US Grand Prix. Meanwhile, there were a few unknowns for the teams and drivers ahead of the weekend.

The Interlagos circuit had been completely resurfaced, Pirelli brought softer tyre specifications to Brazil than last year and forecasts also spoke of changeable weather. All this knowing that the drivers only had one free practice session.

The teams tried as much as they could in terms of setting up each monopost, but 60 minutes in these conditions usually adds to some of the chaos. In any case, FP1 was dominated by Lando Norris, followed by George Russell and newcomer Ollie Bearman in third.

It was the British talent who replaced Kevin Magnussen in the Haas team car for the sprint part of the weekend, who was reportedly ill. Needless to say, it was the experienced Dane who took a sensational pole position at Interlagos in 2022.

We talked about that too in the latest episode of Motorsportal, which included a preview of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Anyway, back to the current events. Friday’s action in São Paulo concluded with sprint qualifying, which determines the grid order for Saturday’s sprint.

However, the first qualifying segment did not bring any big surprises. Zhou Kuan-yu of Sauber, who has not scored a point so far this season, will be the last to start the sprint. Lance Stroll finished nineteenth, while Júki Cunoda, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso also failed to qualify for the second segment.

The two-time world champion is once again having a less than ideal season in Formula 1. Although Aston Martin has brought a large number of upgrades to Austin, the desired evolution of the car and significant improvement is not happening. The fifth team in the championship must once again optimise, especially in terms of development for 2025.

Piastri wins qualifying, Pérez fights for the seat

However, the second qualifying segment (SQ2) has already produced two surprises. Lewis Hamilton, who will start the sprint in eleventh place, did not qualify for the final part of the qualifying sessions. Nico Hülkenberg will start from the twelfth starting slot.

And Sergio Pérez, who is fighting for his seat in Red Bull in Brazil, will start the sprint in thirteenth place. Franco Colapinto and Valtteri Bottas, who at least made it out of the second part of qualifying with a slow Sauber car, also failed to qualify for SQ3.

There was already talk before the weekend that the McLaren team would be the biggest favourite to win at Interlagos. And its drivers confirmed it on Friday. Oscar Piastri won the sprint qualifying with a time of 1:08.899, 29 thousandths of a second behind his teammate Norris.

The third place Charles Leclerc, on such a short circuit of only four kilometres, had a big gap to the McLaren drivers. That’s over two and a half tenths of a second. Drivers’ championship leader Max Verstappen qualified fourth. The full sprint qualifying order can be seen below.

Source: F1 TV, X