That said, Lando Norris put it all together when it mattered most. In a rain-soaked and chaotic Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the McLaren machine hooked up a stunning 1m 27.470s before the heavens truly opened and forced the rest of the field to abandon their final flyers. It is Norris' third consecutive pole at Interlagos and McLaren's fourth of the 2026 season.
Visibility was poor, grip was basically non-existent, and the weather was less than ideal. Yet nine different teams somehow managed to drag themselves through to Q3. But when the spray settled, Norris beat Mercedes' George Russell and Kimi Antonelli to the top spot. "I had good confidence in the car – that's always a good start," Norris explained after stepping out of the cockpit. "You want a car you feel you can push on. Especially with how wet it was, every bit of confidence you can get is a good thing and rewards you heavily."
With Kimi behind, who's probably the quickest this weekend, it's going to be a tough challenge.
Here's the thing about a monsoon qualifying session: it stops being about raw package pace and turns entirely into a test of nerve. "Into Q3, it was a lot more about who could push the most and just make the least mistakes," Norris said. "You had two laps, two opportunities to put things together, get a good lap, get the tyres in a good window – but also to then not make a mistake, to brake later, to accelerate harder but not lock the tyre and not have wheelspin." His clean run ultimately got the job done. "I couldn't have done any more today. It was just a very nice, clean lap in, no mistakes – that's what I managed to do."
With more rain threatened for the 71-lap Grand Prix on Sunday, Norris is openly praying for a wet track to protect his lead. Russell carries a five-place grid penalty, meaning new World Champion Antonelli will start P2 alongside the McLaren. "If I want to win tomorrow, we need rain," Norris admitted. "I think in the dry conditions, we don't quite have the speed of our competitors, so it's nice that in the rain I feel like I can make a bit more of a difference. I make up for a little bit of the lack of speed we have compared to them. I need it to stay raining all night." He knows what's coming: "With Kimi behind, who's probably the quickest this weekend, it's going to be a tough challenge."
Unfortunately, the garage next door saw a completely different reality. Oscar Piastri got chopped out in Q2 for the second consecutive weekend, leaving the Australian stranded in P12 after a late red flag for Rafael Camara's crash ended the session with no restart. Piastri will thankfully catch a break from grid penalties elsewhere on the grid, bumping him up to P10 for the start. "Definitely at the beginning of the session, it was tough," Piastri reflected. "I think towards the end it was definitely getting easier, but you needed a couple of laps to get temperature into the inters. It was very, very challenging. We'll try and make our way forward tomorrow. I think [the order] could be pretty jumbled. There are obviously a few grid penalties around so we'll have to wait and see what it's like."
F1
F1
