Formula 1 2025 drivers’ championship leader Lando Norris secured his first sprint pole position of the season on Friday, maintaining his title hopes by topping qualifying ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and his McLaren team-mate and rival Oscar Piastri.
The 25-year-old Briton, who leads Piastri by a single point in the drivers’ championship with four Grands Prix remaining, clocked a best lap of one minute and 9.243 seconds in the final moments of a tense session at a warm Interlagos.
Antonelli took second place, trailing Norris by 0.097 seconds, while Piastri was 0.185 seconds behind in third. George Russell in the second Mercedes and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin rounded out the top five. Max Verstappen, who is 36 points
behind Norris in the title race, finished in an unhappy sixth for Red Bull, expressing dissatisfaction with his car’s balance. He was followed by Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull’s rookie Isack Hadjar qualified in ninth place, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton placed 11th in his Ferrari.
Reflecting on his performance, Norris commented, “A good day for me today. It’s a long weekend and it’s only Friday — and it’s forecast to be windy and wet, so we have to be prepared for that.”
“It was a little bit tougher than I would’ve liked,” Norris added. “It’s always tricky when you’ve got the medium and the soft tyres and knowing how much more to push – or not to push sometimes. But we did the job we needed to do, which was to be fastest today. It’s trickier than Mexico and I’ve not been feeling quite as comfortable. Therefore, it’s a great result.”
Verstappen briefly led with a lap time of 1:10.107, but it was soon surpassed by Russell and then both Norris and Piastri, while Ferrari struggled with Hamilton in 10th and Leclerc in 12th.
Verstappen managed to split the McLarens in the final seconds, reminding them of his threat in the title race, before SQ2 began with local hero Gabriel Bortoleto leading out in his Sauber.
By then, temperatures were dropping from 20 (air) and 43 (track), and with a strengthening breeze, conditions changed. On the first runs, Alonso set the pace with a lap time of 1:09.330, which remained unbeaten ahead of Norris and Piastri.
Verstappen went through in eighth from SQ2, complaining that “the car is completely broken, it’s just undriveable!” Hamilton was also unhappy and noted for a ‘yellow flag infringement’.
This left Russell to clock the first fast lap on soft tyres with 1:09.556, a time later beaten by Antonelli and then Norris with 1:09.271. Piastri was three-tenths off in fourth as they prepared for their final runs in the shootout for sprint pole.
With AFP Inputs
