Norris takes pole in Brazil after rain-hit qualifying

Lando Norris will start the São Paulo Grand Prix from pole position, the front spot on the grid, after beating George Russell by 0.204 seconds in qualifying on Saturday. The McLaren driver set the fastest lap on a wet Interlagos track, and the session that produced it was far from smooth.

Heavy rain delayed qualifying by nearly an hour and a half. When it finally got under way, the track was still wet, and the Telegraph's live coverage reported marshals sweeping water off the surface to keep the cars running.

Penalties then reshaped the top of the grid. Russell has a five-place grid penalty for going over his allowance of engine parts. Each driver gets a limited number of power unit components, the engine and its related pieces, for the season, and exceeding that limit costs places at the start. Because of that, Kimi Antonelli, Russell's Mercedes teammate, moves up to second.

Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson will start third, and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas will line up fourth. Charles Leclerc qualified fourth for Ferrari but has a 10-place penalty, which pushes him well down the order. Oliver Bearman of Haas qualified eighth and will start sixth, while Fernando Alonso, who qualified ninth, will start eighth for Aston Martin. The BBC's qualifying report sets out the full revised running order.

Russell, who was second fastest on Saturday before his penalty, said he could have gone quicker. He believed he could have been faster had his engineer not told him to abort a faster lap. The timing screens show the gap Norris held when the chequered flag came out.

Norris has history at this circuit. He also took pole here in 2025, and went on to win both the sprint race and the grand prix that weekend. Interlagos itself dates back to 1938, which makes it one of the older venues on the calendar.

For the race, the front row is set, but the rest of the top ten is still moving. Norris begins with a clear lead on the grid, while Antonelli and Lawson will have the chance to press from the second and third spots. The first few corners on a grid shaped by penalties often decide how a race begins, and this one starts from a jumbled order.