Lando Norris took pole position for the São Paulo Grand Prix in a dramatic, incident-filled qualifying session that could portend a major change in his battle for the world championship with Max Verstappen. It puts the McLaren driver in the best possible position to make a huge step in closing the gap on Verstappen, who was unlucky and caught out in qualifying and finished 12th.^emeaning he will start racing from the age of seventeen^e with a grid penalty of five places.

Qualifying was postponed from Saturday after a heavy rainstorm flooded Interlagos and took place on Sunday morning. When things got going, again in the rain, Verstappen was unable to complete his final fast lap in Q2 as the session was stopped following a Lance Stroll crash. The world champion now faces an enormous challenge in the race.

Mercedes’ George Russell was second, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was third, with an excellent run from his rookie teammate Liam Lawson in fifth and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished fourth. With further heavy rain forecast, the race itself has been moved to 12.30pm local time/3.30pm UK time.

After a host of crashes and five delays in qualifying, many teams face a huge task in repairing cars, with even more drama looming given conditions expected to be difficult in the race. In the wet weather, Lewis Hamilton, who normally enjoys difficult conditions, took a shock exit in Q1 to finish 16^e.

The session again started with persistent rain, although not nearly as heavy as on Saturday, with the entire field trying to set times in case conditions deteriorated. It was postponed with a red flag when Williams’ Franco Colapinto departed and lost the rear at Curva do Sol.

With time already scarce given the early start of the race, the delay was further shortened in the pre-race period. When running resumed, Norris narrowly escaped elimination, coming home in 15^e at the end of the session, while Verstappen had gone fastest. The British driver’s title hopes hung in the balance during those few moments.

The rain started to ease in Q2 and the teams opted for the intermediate tyres, but conditions remained extremely treacherous, with Carlos Sainz also losing control at the second corner and hitting the barriers. Norris was threatened again in the drop zone with five minutes on the clock and the track improved. The British driver quickly set a good time, but Verstappen suffered late drama.

With the Dutchman 12^e In order to still set a fast lap, Stroll headed to Curva do Sol and the session was red flagged after a delay of around 40 seconds before ending when Verstappen could not improve his place.

He was furious that the session had not stopped immediately, providing an opportunity to restart the session and complete a final lap. “It’s stupid, it’s ridiculous,” said Verstappen. “If a car hits a wall it should be a straight red flag. I don’t know why it has to take 40 seconds for a red flag to go out.”

In Q3, as the rain increased, Fernando Alonso crashed at Mergulho, just after Norris had set the fastest time. The rain then eased, but Alex Albon suffered a heavy crash at the first corner, halting the session again, with three minutes remaining. With time for two final laps, Norris pushed hard and improved his time on both laps to claim pole with a lap of 1 minute 23.405 seconds, almost two tenths ahead of Russell who secured a strong second place, while Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was stuck and fell. to the eighth.

McLaren had already had a strong opening to the weekend, with Norris taking victory in the sprint race, albeit against Piastri, who had led all but two laps. In doing so, they achieved a one-two from Verstappen, who finished third but was penalized for not reaching the minimum time under the VSC and dropping to fourth place. The 27-year-old has been given a grid penalty for taking a new engine into Brazil.

The sprint victory was a follow-up to Norris’ comeback to Verstappen in the battle for the championship and was crucial to get closer to him again. He took a further three points from his rival and closed the gap to 44 points, with 112 available from another sprint and the four upcoming races.

Verstappen looked strong in qualifying and will be optimistic that he at least has a chance to break through the field in Sunday’s race. He comfortably outpaced the Ferraris in the sprint race and showed similarly strong pace in qualifying, but still has a mountain to climb. Damage control is now the task, his aim is to close the gap with Norris and minimize the points difference.

Elsewhere, Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari, Albon sixth for Williams and Alonso and Stroll ninth and tenth for Aston Martin. Yuki Tsunoda was 11^e for Red Bull, Valtteri Bottas 12^e for Sauber, Sergio Pérez 14^e for Red Bull and Sainz 15^e. Oliver Bearman and Nico Hülkenberg were 17^e and 19^e for Haas. Colapinto 18^e and Guanyu Zhou 20^e.