McLaren ‘scoop’ wing lands front-row sprint knockout in Brazil GP

Oscar Piastri outshone McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to light up a gloomy Interlagos with a stunning performance in sprint qualifying to land the top spot on the F1 grid in São Paulo.

In stark contrast to the sunshine and blue skies for the sole practice session, it was grey cloud and much cooler temperatures for sprint qualifying. There was a 20-degree difference in the track temperature between the two sessions.

After setting the fastest time in SQ1 and SQ2 on the medium Pirelli tyres, Norris looked set to claim sprint pole with a searing lap of 1:08.928s on the first run on softs in SQ3. But on the second run, Piastri pipped the Briton by 0.029s to claim his second sprint pole.

Norris made a mistake on his second SQ3 and opted box, but it is an all-McLaren front row, with their cars sporting a special rear wing for this grand prix only, noticeable for its midline scoop, and it paid dividends around the iconic São Paulo circuit.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start third, whilst Max Verstappen, who has won the last six sprints, will line up directly behind title rival Norris in fourth. The Red Bull driver was over two-tenths of a second slower than Piastri.

Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari starts fifth ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson in his RB, and Alex Albon for Williams.

Ollie Bearman, afforded another F1 outing this year, initially for sprint qualifying and the sprint, due to Kevin Magnussen feeling unwell, performed superbly to reach SQ3. The Briton’s only lap in the session, however, was deleted for exceeding track limits.

A decision will be made on Saturday on whether Magnussen will be fit to take part in the main qualifying and the grand prix.

Meanwhile, it was another disaster for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez in his Red Bull. The duo will start 11th and 13th respectively.

To Piastri the spoils – but what will his move be in the sprint?

Appreciably, as more rubber was laid down on the resurfaced circuit, the track ramped up in terms of lap time, with Piastri leading the way after the opening salvos on the medium Pirellis in SQ1 with a time of 1:10.265s, almost two-tenths of a second quicker than Leclerc.

Following the second runs, Norris delivered a staggering time of 1:09.477s, eight-tenths clear of Piastri, who had rested on his laurels with his first outing. The McLaren duo finished ahead of Albon, Leclerc, Perez and Verstappen, with Bearman seventh.

By the conclusion of SQ1, it proved to be a double disaster for Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both knocked out. They will line up 16th and 19th.

Sandwiched in between will be Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda in his RB, the Japanese driver six-tenths of a second slower than team-mate Lawson. Zhou Guanyu will again start last in his Stake F1.

With medium tyres again required for SQ2, Norris again lit up the timesheet, posting a lap of 1:09.063s on his initial tour, four-tenths ahead of Verstappen, who edged out Sainz by 0.011s.

Piastri and Leclerc improved to sandwich themselves in between the two title protagonists, although neither Norris nor Verstappen bothered to post another time.

As for Bearman, the Briton delivered again, reaching SQ3 in his first sprint qualifying, with the seventh-best time again.

That helped knock out Hamilton, who was only 11th fastest ahead of Bearman’s Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, Perez, who somehow missed the cut-off point to set another time, with Williams’ Franco Colapinto 14th and Stake’s Valtteri Bottas 15th.

In SQ3, when it appeared as if Norris would net the spoils, Piastri nipped in at the death.

Will the Australian now yield in the sprint to hand Norris what could be a crucial extra point in the battle for the drivers’ title with Verstappen?