Kevin Magnussen secured an impressive pole position for the Interlagos sprint race, after a fortunately timed red flag ensured he beat Max Verstappen at full speed.
During intermittent rain-affected qualifying, Magnussen was the first driver on track in Q3 and George Russell spun into the gravel and set up what would become pole position before the red flag. It rained during the stoppage, meaning neither driver could improve once the session resumed, resulting in a shock pole position for Magnussen and Haas.
Max Verstappen will start tomorrow’s race with Magnussen at the front, with George Russell third.
Q1
At the Interlagos circuit, the track was still a bit wet as the first qualifying session began, with light rain falling between practice and qualifying. All drivers opted to run on medium tyres, with Ferrari warning Charles Leclerc that more rain would arrive 10 minutes into the session.
Leclerc was fastest of the first set of drivers to complete the first banker’s lap, setting a 1’18.723. Teammate Carlos Sanz-Jenner finished second, a tenth of a second quicker. The Red Bulls then went fastest in their first effort of the season, with Max Verstappen fastest of all and team-mate Sergio Perez second.
Times continued to drop by the minute, with Fernando Alonso moving to the top of the table before Lewis Hamilton raced to take the top spot. With just under 10 minutes to go, Alfatauri took out both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Sundoda on soft tyres. Gasly’s first lap was slower than his previous best, but the next time he went faster than everyone else.
Now, almost the entire field has moved to softer tires. With three minutes to go, the breakaway zone consisted of the two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen.
Stroll and Vettel both improved on the softs, pushing the two Ferraris into the drop zone. Sainz jumped to safety on the first sliding lap, but had to abandon the first lap when Leclerc was caught behind Tsunoda, leaving himself with just one lap to go through to Q2. Fortunately for Ferrari, he did just that, but his opponents were improving with every car that crossed the line.
Nicolas Laffey was the first driver to lose in 16th place after the late-season crash, with Daniel Ricciardo in 10th in 15th. The two Alfa Romeos were also out, Zhou Guanyu in the 17th and his team-mate Bottas in the 18th after a second mid-set late session call. Tsunoda was eliminated in the 19th, with Mick Schumacher the last driver out in the 20th.
The Haas driver, whose future in the team was very much in doubt, was devastated to learn that he could not make the race. “We didn’t pass, it was 15.1 to pass,” the race engineer informed him. Schumacher’s 1’16.361 was not only better than that, but two and a half seconds slower than his teammate.
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Q1 result
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Q2
There was still no active rain on the circuit when the pit road exit opened to start the second part of qualifying. All drivers hit the road quickly, but with all 15 on slick tires, there was a mix of cars on used or new tires.
Verstappen set a starting benchmark of 1’11.670 on used tyres, but was pipped by Lando Norris, a tenth of a second behind Red Bull on new tyres. Pierre Gasly moved into third fastest, five thousandths of a second slower than Verstappen, before Fernando Alonso jumped to the top on the second pushing lap on the new softs.
George Russell and Esteban Ocon both reported that rain spots were visible in their field of view, before Leclerc found streaks of rain on the field of view through the central sector. With the two Mercedes out of safety, the team pulled both Russell and Hamilton for new softs. Russell used it to move up to third, while Hamilton improved his first lap on new tires to move behind his team-mate.
With five minutes to go, Carlos Sainz Jr was in tenth place, with Ocon, Alexander Albon, Vettel, Ricciardo and Stroll having to make up some time to ensure they progressed to Q3. Vettel got over a tenth to jump to ninth, putting Sainz in danger. The Ferrari driver responded by flashing his personal best time to jump into second place and go safely away again.
In the last minute, the reported blob seemed to start affecting the track as no one could make progress. The two Aston Martin drivers both made the same mistake at the start of the Senna S lap, sealing their fate and none of the other drivers needing to make up time.
At the end of the session, Albon was in 11th place, behind Gasly and Vettel in 13th place. Ricciardo failed to follow McLaren team-mate Norris into Q3, losing out in 14th place, while Stroll’s mistake in the first lap saw him crash out of Q2 qualifying in 15th.
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Q2 result
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Q3
The Autodromo José Carlos Pace was now so dark that rain clouds hung overhead, so the rain lights on the backs of the cars made for a spectacular sight as the field lined up at the end of the pit lane. As rain could fall at any moment, Ferrari opted to split strategy by sending Leclerc to the queue on medium tires – the only one out of ten drivers.
Magnussen was the first driver to leave the pits in the queue on slacks, with Leclerc close behind. At the end of his climb it became clear that it was not going to rain. Ferrari tried to call Leclerc at the end of the lap, but it was too late and he was forced to complete a second lap. Meanwhile, the drivers set their first lap times with Verstappen setting the pace at 1’11.877. Then he was beaten by Magnussen, who managed to take the temporary pole two tenths of a second faster than the world champion.
Russell was third fastest, but lost control of the Mercedes when he hit the grass under braking on lap four. He runs into a gravel trap and tries to check the Mercedes, but in the process ditches the car on the beach. The session was red-flagged with Magnussen at the top of his time.
As the marshals cleared Russell’s car, the rain began to fall heavily. Suddenly Magnussen had a real chance of taking pole position if his rivals failed to improve. As the session eventually resumed, it was clearly too wet for slick tyres. With just seven minutes remaining, none of the ten drivers had a realistic chance of bettering their first time. Perez and Hamilton both went out midway to see laps, but returned to the pits without starting a flying lap.
With the session finally over, Magnussen was officially confirmed to be on pole for Saturday’s sprint race – the first of his career and the first for the Haas team. Verstappen starts second on the front row, Russell’s mistake having the unintended consequence of putting him third on the grid.
Lando Norris took fourth on the grid, with Sainz fifth and Alonso sixth and seventh of the two Ocon Alpines. Hamilton starts eighth for the sprint, while Perez and Leclerc complete the top ten, with the Ferrari driver failing to set his time.
Q3 results
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2022 Brazilian Grand Prix
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