Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a McLaren one-two in
sprint qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris' title rival Max Verstappen could manage only fourth
place in his Red Bull, behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen, who has a five-place grid penalty for the main
grand prix on Sunday, starts the weekend 47 points ahead of Norris in the
championship.
The result of sprint qualifying gives Norris an opportunity
to claw back a small amount of points on Verstappen in Saturday’s sprint event,
in which there are eight points for a win, seven for second and so on down to
eighth.
But Norris said he was not thinking about the championship.
"I hate this question so much," he said. "I'm
just going to race. I don't care about where he qualified.
"For me it's just focus on my own job. It's the same
question every time. It doesn't matter. If he's first or last, I will do the
best I can."
Norris set the pace on the first runs in the final shootout,
with a lap of one minute 8.928 seconds - Piastri just under 0.3secs slower.
But Norris failed to improve on his second lap and Piastri
edged him out by just 0.029secs.
"A big improvement compared to early today,"
Norris said. "We were struggling a lot (in practice). A little bit
surprised we were so quick today, but a pleasant one. A good lap. I made too
many mistakes on my final lap and just pitted."
Verstappen was 0.320secs adrift in fourth place, and just
0.056secs slower than Leclerc.
Verstappen said that bumps on the freshly resurfaced track
had exposed one of the Red Bull's key flaws.
"As soon as we went into qualifying, it looked like we
were definitely off," he said.
"A bit difficult on the bumps. They did the resurfacing
but I think they made it worse to drive. It is extremely bumpy everywhere and
that is not good for our car.
"On all the bumpy areas the car is jumping around a lot
and it is costing me quite a bit of lap time.
"For tomorrow, when you are already quite a bit off
over one lap, we are not particularly the strongest in the race. There is some
weather around that can come but not for the sprint maybe."
Leclerc said he did not expect to be able to challenge the
McLarens in the race, despite Ferrari having won the last two grands prix.
"I'm happy because we have maximised the result for
today," Leclerc said. "McLaren are so fast. We are a little bit on
the back foot this weekend and it will be important to take strong points.
"We will give it everything to put a challenge on them
but seeing the pace they have shown today I think they were particularly
strong."
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified fifth for the sprint, ahead
of Mercedes' George Russell.
The second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in the
second session and will start the sprint 11th.
"Pretty bad, but same as every qualifying for me,"
Hamilton said. "I just don't have any confidence in the car, so a big
struggle for me.
"The ride is pretty bad on the track for everyone. The
track has been resurfaced and they've not done a particularly good job. The
thing is hopping through all the corners, so very difficult to drive."
Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez qualified in 13th.
Briton Oliver Bearman qualified tenth for Haas, two places
ahead of regular driver Nico Hulkenbereg, as he stood in for Kevin Magnussen
after the Dane became ill.
After sprint qualifying, the team confirmed that Bearman
would drive for the entire race weekend.
