Oscar Piastri will start the F1 São Paulo Grand Prix from 10th place on the grid after a chaotic wet-weather qualifying session at Interlagos.
The Australian only jumped into the top 10 due to grid place penalties meted out to his rivals, however, in a wet and wild session that was twice red-flagged, and delayed by 80 minutes as torrential rain teemed down on the circuit.
Piastri was only 12th fastest in the tricky conditions, missing out on Q3.
“Today’s qualifying was a very tough session,” Piastri said.
“The car felt reasonable in the wet, and we’ve been more competitive and comfortable in the dry this weekend, so it’s disappointing not to have made more of the session.
“We’ll review what happened and see what the weather and final grid order bring tomorrow.
“If it’s dry, we look strong; if it’s wet, we’re still decent, but we’ll need to work hard overnight and into the race to make progress up the field.”
The entire grid dealt with atrocious conditions. (Getty Images: Clive Mason)
For the third year in a row, Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris will start on pole.
“It’s been a long day,” Norris said.
“To be on pole here two years in a row… Different conditions to last year, but I am very happy.
“It was about getting two laps in, not making any mistakes and yeah, it has been a very good day.
“This was my first time driving the car in the wet, but I think I figured it out.”
George Russell, who fumed at his team for telling him to back off during a flying lap, qualified second, but will start seventh after taking a five-place grid place penalty for a power unit change.
That puts world champion Kimi Antonelli on the front row of the grid after he qualified third.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest but has a 10-place grid drop, promoting Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson to third, with Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg fourth.
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, Oliver Bearman, Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon all made up the rest of the top 10 on track.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will start from the back row of the grid after both veterans took grid-place penalties.
However, with wet weather forecast for race day, both men will back themselves to make their way through the firled to the front places.
ABC Sport will have a live blog of the F1 São Paulo Grand Prix on Monday morning, with lights out at 4am AEDT.
What happened to Oscar Piastri?
Piastri was struggling on the wet-weather tyres and was delayed in changing to intermediates as the track dried during a brief window in the weather.
Then, once he changed to the correct tyres, a crash to debutant Rafael Camara meant that Q2 was brought to a premature end.
That left the Australian in 12th place and unable to participate in the final phase of qualifying.
“The track was incredibly slippery [at the beginning],” Piastri said.
“It became a little easier towards the end, but the call on tyres was always going to be difficult because I was a long way up the road and there was always a risk that an earlier red flag could change things.
“But we paid the price by missing out on Q3.”
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