McLaren’s Lando Norris took pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in a chaotic, crash-strewn qualifying session in which Max Verstappen was 12th.
The Red Bull driver has a five-place grid penalty for the grand prix later on Sunday so will start 17th, although he may vault up if some of the damaged cars cannot start the race.
Mercedes driver George Russell snatched second place alongside Norris, with the RB of Yuki Tsunoda third, ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and RB’s Liam Lawson.
The session was punctuated by five red flags for heavy crashes involving, in order, Williams’ Franco Colapinto, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, both Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, and Williams’ Alex Albon.
Verstappen was left fuming about the delay in throwing the red flag for Stroll’s crash in the second session, which he believed had allowed other drivers to knock him out of the top 10 because the session was not resumed.
And Norris himself came close to being knocked out in the first session – he was in the drop zone before jumping up to 15th, the final car to progress, with his final lap.
That time, though, knocked out Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who qualified 16th.
Norris said: “There was a lot going on. I was struggling a lot at the start of the session, I worked on it a lot in the session. A little surprised to be on pole but a good result for us.”
