Qualifying for the 2023 São Paulo Grand Prix didn’t quite go to plan.
As this weekend features a sprint race (again), Formula 1 held qualifying for Sunday’s race in Brazil on Friday instead of Saturday. It was rather uneventful, aside from a two-place grid penalty from George Russell for impeding in the pit lane and a stunning amount of pace that saw Aston Martin lock out the second row, and part of that reasoning is because Q3 wasn’t able to finish — heavy rain called off qualifying with four minutes left to race and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was declared polesitter on the day. He was followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and then Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Here is what qualifying looked like at the end of the session, with George Russell’s penalty applied:
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
- Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
- Alexander Albon (Williams)
- Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
- Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
- Logan Sargeant (Williams)
- Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
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