2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
6 days ago
2 min read

The penultimate Sprint Qualifying session of the season took place today around the wonderful Interlagos ahead of tomorrow’s Sao Paulo Sprint!

SQ1

In Sprint Qualifying 1, Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, and Carlos Sainz were the five slowest drivers! Franco Colapinto only missed out on SQ2 by 6 hundredths of a second, whilst Liam Lawson wasn’t at all happy with his laps! Yuki Tsunoda struggled massively, some 6 tenths slower than his teammate, whilst Esteban Ocon was 8 tenths off his Haas teammate! However, no one had a worse day than Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard slowest of anyone! Lando Norris was comfortably quickest for McLaren, more than 3 tenths clear of Max Verstappen!

SQ2

In Sprint Qualifying 2, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Oliver Bearman all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Lewis Hamilton failed to make it to the line to start his final lap, resulting in him suffering a disappointing elimination, whilst Alex Albon could only manage 12th for Williams! Pierre Gasly might actually be disappointed with 13th given his final lap was ruined by yellow flags, whilst Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman just didn’t have the pace after their initial runs! Amazingly, Fernando Alonso managed to top SQ2 for Aston Martin, just ahead of Norris!

SQ3

In Sprint Qualifying 3, a strong 1:09.243 was enough for Lando Norris to take Pole Position for tomorrow’s Sao Paulo Sprint! Lando was one of the few drivers who improved in SQ3 compared to SQ2, a great job from the Championship leader, whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli did a wonderful job to get his Mercedes onto the Front Row! Whilst only third, Oscar Piastri seemed closer today, ahead of George Russell, whilst Fernando Alonso managed P5 in arguably the performance of the day! One driver that wasn’t happy with his car was Max Verstappen, with the Dutchman only P6, one place ahead of Lance Stroll (who capped off a wonderful day for Aston Martin), whilst Charles Leclerc could only manage 8th in a pretty slow Ferrari! And finally, Isack Hadjar will start 9th tomorrow, with Nico Hulkenberg’s Kick Sauber alongside him on Row 5!