It was a sunny day in Sao Paulo for sprint day. It was going to be a very different qualifying from the day before.
In SQ1 it was all plain sailing for the first 11 and 1/2 minutes, then Ocon lost control of his car, "got out of shape" and went into and over Alonso, the Alpine went spinning into the wall, causing a lot of damage and the Aston Martin got a puncture and dragged his car, sparking, back to the pits. There was a Yellow Flag and then the session was stopped, which really damaged the laps for a lot of drivers who were putting in a quick lap including Albon and Sargeant who finished last. Also out went Ocon, Stroll and Zhou.
Alonso was out of SQ2 with damage so qualified 15th. Ahead of him and out went both Haas, Gasly and Bottas. Notably great lap times were made by Norris, first and Ricciardo, fourth. Perez was ahead of Verstappen but took two shots to get there.
The first half of SQ3 was particularly dull as no cars went out. It was all or nothing at the end and fingers were crossed for no Red or Yellow Flags (by the teams if not the spectators). The first time was set by Piastri but the field was quicker behind him. Norris took the Sprint pole for his first time, followed by his friend Verstappen, then Perez. Behind them was Russell and Hamilton, Tsunoda, LeClerc, Ricciardo, Sainz and Piastri.
Remarkably, Ocon's car was prepared in time for the Sprint race. Our prediction for the race was Verstappen from Norris and that was the case by the first corner. In fact, Russell was also past Norris by the end of the first lap.
DRS handed positions back and forth between drivers as they overtook each other. There was overtake after overtake until the end, where Verstappen finished in front of Norris and Perez. For once the Alpha Tauris were fighting near the front, which was great for them, with Tsunoda finishing in the points. There was a lot of swearing from Danny Ric on his radio as he couldn't make up as many places as he wanted.
Norris felt he had been too cautious and not made the best of his opportunity. There's always a reason he doesn't do better and they're not excuses but they need to stop happening. It's all set to be a great race tomorrow, with tyre degradation being quite high, teams who have saved tyres will be rewarded.
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