Lando Norris took pole position for the São Paulo Grand Prix in a dramatic and eventful qualifying session that could herald a major turn in his world championship battle with Max Verstappen. This puts the McLaren driver in the best possible position to make a big move and close the gap on Verstappen, who was unlucky and made a mistake in qualifying, finishing 12th^Thwhich means he will start the race from 17th place^Th with a penalty of five starting places.

Qualifying had been postponed from Saturday after a heavy rainstorm hit Interlagos and instead took place on Sunday morning. When it started again, Verstappen was no longer able to complete his final fast lap in the second qualifying session as the session was canceled after Lance Stroll crashed. The world champion now faces a huge task in the race.

Mercedes' George Russell was second, Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda third, with an excellent run from his rookie teammate Liam Lawson fifth and Alpine's Esteban Ocon fourth. With further heavy rain forecast, the race itself was postponed until 12:30pm local time or 3:30pm UK time.

After a series of accidents and five red flag delays in qualifying, many teams face the huge task of repairing their cars, while more drama is on the way given the difficult conditions expected in the race. In wet weather, Lewis Hamilton, who normally enjoys difficult conditions, made a surprise exit in the first qualifying session, finishing 16th^Th.

The session began again in persistent rain, although nowhere near as heavy as Saturday, with the entire field attempting to set times in case conditions worsened. It was delayed by a red flag when Williams' Franco Colapinto retired and lost to the rear at the Curva do Sol.

With time already tight given the early start of the race, the delay shortened even further to the time before the race. When the race resumed, Norris narrowly avoided elimination and finished 15th^Th at the end of the session, while Verstappen had driven fastest. The British driver's title hopes were at stake for those few moments.

In Q2 the rain began to ease and the teams switched to intermediate tires, but the conditions remained extremely treacherous as Carlos Sainz also lost control in turn two and hit the barriers. Norris was in danger again in the drop zone with five minutes to go and the track was improving. The British driver quickly set a good time, but the late drama caught out Verstappen.

With the Dutchman 12^Th And although Stroll was unable to put in another fast lap, he went off track at the Curva do Sol and the session was red flagged after a delay of around 40 seconds before ending with Verstappen unable to improve his position .

He was angry that the session hadn't been stopped immediately, which might have given him a chance to restart it and do one last lap. “It’s stupid, it’s ridiculous,” said Verstappen. “If a car hits a wall, there must be an immediate red flag. I don’t know why it has to take 40 seconds to get a red flag.”

In the third quarter, as the rain became increasingly heavy, Fernando Alonso crashed at Mergulho, shortly after Norris had set the fastest time. The rain then let up, but Alex Albon suffered a serious accident in turn one, forcing the session to be stopped again with three minutes to go. With time for two final laps, Norris did his best and improved his time on both laps to secure pole with a lap of 1 minute 23.405 seconds, almost two tenths ahead of Russell who secured a strong second place, while Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri faltered and fell back to eighth.

McLaren had already made a strong start at the start of the weekend and Norris took victory in the sprint race, although Piastri, who had been leading for all but two laps, conceded a goal. This secured them a one-two from Verstappen, who finished third but received a penalty for failing to meet the minimum time according to VSC and dropped to fourth place. The 27-year-old received a grid penalty because he installed a new engine in Brazil.

The sprint victory continued Norris' comeback to Verstappen in the fight for the championship and was crucial in getting closer to him again. He took another three points from his rival and reduced the gap to 44 points, with 112 points available in another sprint and the next four races.

Verstappen looked strong in qualifying and is optimistic that he has at least a chance of overtaking the field in Sunday's race. He was significantly faster than the Ferraris in the sprint race and showed similarly strong pace in qualifying, but still has a mountain to climb. Now it's time to limit the damage, his goal is to reduce the gap to Norris and minimize the difference in points.

Charles Leclerc took fifth place for Ferrari, Albon sixth for Williams and Alonso and Stroll ninth and tenth for Aston Martin. Yuki Tsunoda was 11^Th for Red Bull, Valtteri Bottas 12^Th for Sauber, Sergio Pérez 14^Th for Red Bull and Sainz 15^Th. Oliver Bearman and Nico Hülkenberg were 17^Th and 19^Th for Haas. Colapinto 18^Th and Guanyu Zhou 20^Th.