Lawson's Strong Start as Norris Dominates Sao Paulo Qualifying
On a day when Interlagos turned into a waterlogged lottery, Liam Lawson kept his head and earned the joint-best starting position of his Formula 1 career.
The New Zealander will launch from third on the grid for tomorrow’s São Paulo Grand Prix, matching the high-water mark he set in Baku last year. That Azerbaijan weekend also brought his best race finish, fifth. Now he has a genuine shot at going better.
This time, he didn’t need a miracle lap in the dry. He needed nerve in a storm.
Norris on pole again as storm rips up the script
Lando Norris, though, owned qualifying.
For the third straight year, the McLaren driver put his car on pole at Interlagos, threading it through treacherous conditions on a day dominated by torrential rain and long delays. The session was halted for nearly an hour and a half as the heavens opened and the track flooded.
When it mattered, Norris delivered. One lap, one statement.
“Today is about getting on pole. It doesn’t really matter how you do it, so very pleased with that,” he said after locking in the top spot, the rest of the field unable to respond as the rain intensified in the final minutes and the track fell silent.
No one went back out. The times were frozen. The grid was set.
George Russell had been closest, 0.204 seconds off Norris for Mercedes, but his work came with a sting. A five-place grid penalty will drop him down the order, promoting newly crowned world champion Kimi Antonelli to the front row alongside last year’s race winner.
Penalties shuffle the pack – and lift Lawson
Behind the front-row reshuffle, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified fourth but takes a 10-place grid drop for power unit changes. That opened the door for Lawson.
The Racing Bulls driver inherits third on the grid, with Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg bumped up to fourth. Isack Hadjar will start fifth for Red Bull, Oliver Bearman lines up sixth for Haas, and Russell’s penalty leaves him seventh.
Fernando Alonso, always a menace when the clouds gather, read the track superbly to take eighth as Aston Martin finally reached Q3 for the first time this season. Alex Albon starts ninth for Williams, Oscar Piastri 10th for McLaren.
For Lawson, it’s another quiet statement in a season that keeps asking awkward questions of his future. The 24‑year‑old has pieced together a hugely encouraging campaign, yet Racing Bulls still haven’t handed him a confirmed drive for 2027.
He knows what Sao Paulo can be like. He’d already joked earlier in the week about the weather, telling RNZ: “I feel like it always rains here. Yesterday, I got to the hotel and was watching one of the craziest thunderstorms I’ve ever witnessed. So if it’s like that, it’ll be a tough race.”
It was like that. He handled it.
Russell fumes, Alonso gambles, big names tumble
Not everyone walked away content.
Russell, already aware of his penalty, still wanted the moral victory of pole. Instead, traffic killed his final effort. He came up behind Albon on what should have been his decisive lap and was told to back off.
“Mate, you told me to back off! What the hell?” he snapped over team radio, before the final blow landed. “P2. I don’t want to be P2. I want to be P1.”
Behind the frustration, the grid kept twisting.
Max Verstappen, burdened with a brutal 30-place grid penalty for power unit changes, saw no point in pushing on. The four-time Red Bull champion sat out Q2, which was red-flagged anyway when Haas debutant Rafael Camara crashed.
Lewis Hamilton suffered even more on the penalty front. The Ferrari driver will start at the very back after engine changes stacked up to an impossible 65-place drop. His qualifying run ended early as well.
The stop-start rhythm of the session never really settled. After Camara’s crash came another delay to clear debris before Q3 could finally begin. By then, every cloud over Interlagos seemed to be sitting directly above the circuit.
In Q2, when the rain briefly eased, Alonso’s experience shone. He was the first to gamble on intermediate tyres, a move that helped drag Aston Martin into the top 10 shootout for the first time this year.
Camara at least had his moment. The Brazilian rookie reached Q2 and sent the home crowd into full voice before his accident ended the fairy tale. Fellow countryman Gabriel Bortoleto endured the opposite. For the second year running, he had a nightmare at home, going off and qualifying last.
Bortoleto slid into the tyre wall with seven minutes remaining, limped back to the pits, and watched the clock beat his mechanics. The damage was too much to repair in time.
Both Alpines were knocked out in Q1, joined by the two Cadillacs and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
Lawson’s chance in the storm
So the grid is scrambled, the champions are buried in penalties, and the weather forecast still looks wild.
At the sharp end sits Norris, chasing a win he has threatened so often at Interlagos. Alongside him, Antonelli, the new world champion, ready to turn control of the title race into command of the Grand Prix.
And right behind them, on the second row, a Kiwi who has made a habit of turning unlikely weekends into career landmarks.
Liam Lawson has matched his best-ever start. In this chaos, with rain in the air and giants out of position, does he now have the platform to rewrite his personal best when the lights go out?
