Hamilton goes fastest in São Paulo qualifying with a time of 1min 07.934s. The Saturday sprint qualifying will see him starting on first. Max Verstappen will be alongside him at the front row.
Ferrari ahead of McLaren
Charles Leclerc was the first driver to set a timed lap in Q1. Followed by his teammate, Carlos Sainz. Sainz, who clinched his first ever podium here back in 2019, showed great pace.
The prancing horses are in great shape after taking new engines in the previous races. The papaya team – Lando (P8) and Daniel Ricciardo (P9) – were out qualified by the Ferrari duo in front.
Q1 saw Nicholas Latifi a position ahead of his Williams teammate, George Russell. This is the first time the Canadian has done that on a conventional qualifying day. However, they both were out in the first session with P17 and P18.
Giovinazzi, whose future is uncertain in the Alfa Romeo team, went 6th fastest in Q1. Maybe he got a decent tow because this feat was not replicated again in Q2. He will start from P15 behind his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen (P14).
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll unfortunately suffered an early exit. He qualified at P16 whereas his teammate, Sebastian Vettel stands at P12.
AlphaTauri showing pace
Esteban Ocon was out in Q2 with P11. The other side of the Alpine garage managed to get into Q3 with Fernando Alonso. The two time world champion rounding up the top ten.
In comparison, their competitor AlphaTauri were flying in the qualifying. Pierre Gasly who also got his first podium in 2019, did a great run. He qualified behind the top teams at P5. Yuki Tsunoda on the other hand fell victim to a tyre lock up, resulting into P13.
In the post-qualifying interview, Verstappen gave his opinion about Lewis Hamilton’s pace,
“When they take a new engine that shows they have a bit more power for a weekend so for me it’s not a big shock.”
Moreover, the weather forecast predicts no rain going further in the weekend. This means the track temperatures will be a little more. Ultimately that will change the performance of the cars. And that leads us to wonder how it will affect the drama.
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