Lando Norris secured his 20th career pole the weekend after he officially passed on the championship title to Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli will join Norris on the front row, qualifying third and moving up a spot after his teammate George Russell received a grid penalty.
Russell, who was fastest in Q2 and fastest through sectors 1 and 2 in the final qualifying session as well, was told to back off on his final lap as the rain, which plagued the entire qualifying, picked up again. Russell was running up on Alex Albon’s Williams also in a flying lap and radioed for his former teammate to move out of the way. He was then called back potential in hopes of staying out for another out lap and hitting his second flyer on a wet but clearer track.
Furious over the radio to his race engineer, Marcus Dudley, Russell raged about being called off. Russell’s provisional pole of 1:27.674 was beaten by Norris by 0.204 seconds on the 2025 Drivers' Champion's second lap, and the English Mercedes driver was convinced that his next lap would be a step better.
“Mate! Russell yelled. “You told me to back off. What the hell?”
“George, you’re P2,” Toto Wolff replied over the radio.
With six minutes to go in the final stage, Russell was called to the garage and told to stay in the car just in case they could get out for a final out lap and flying lap. Dejected, his qualifying ended here, and his starting position moved from second to seventh with his five-place grid penalty.
I’m P2, but I don’t want to be P2; I want to be P1,” Russell radioed again.
While the difference between a sixth and seventh place start at Sao Paulo is small, Russell felt cheated out of a pole, which would still be recorded even with his grid penalty.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously congrats to Lando, but yeah, that was definitely the pole lap,” Russell said. “Misjudgment on our side; we need to understand what happened. Obviously, the rain was coming, and we should have just finished the lap.”
Leclerc qualified fourth and will start third next to Liam Lawson who was second fastest in Q2 and held provisional pole early in Q3. Lawson, who is not confirmed to have a seat with Racing Bulls or elsewhere next year, had his best qualifying in fifth. His best of the year at both Red Bull and Racing Bulls has been eighth, twice.
Nico Hulkenberg qualified sixth and will start sixth, and Isack Hadjar is the final driver upgraded with Russell’s penalty. Haas’ Oliver Bearman will start eighth, and Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon both made their first Q3 appearances of the year and will start ninth and tenth, respectively.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sports writer who spends her time hopping between race tracks and hippie farms. She’s covered every corner of motorsports that will let her in from 410 Sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do the smallest amount of preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot Skoolie to one day travel the country full time.
