Lando Norris pulled off a surprise and kept the Red Bull team behind him, placing his McLaren team in the first position for the sprint race at the São Paulo Grand Prix today, Saturday. The British driver outperformed three-time world champion Max Verstappen by 0.061 seconds in the qualifying for the sprint race, while Mexico's Sergio Perez, the second Red Bull driver, came in third with a gap of 0.134 seconds.
Norris, who qualified sixth for the Grand Prix with a time of 1 minute and 10.622 seconds, said, "Honestly, I felt it was one of the worst laps I had, so I am a bit surprised." He added, "But it's a nice surprise. I feel like we made up for what happened yesterday. I'm starting from pole position after a long time without achieving it, so I'm happy."
George Russell of Mercedes secured fourth place ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Yuki Tsunoda from AlphaTauri qualified in sixth, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo was eighth, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in between them. Carlos Sainz of Ferrari will start from ninth, and Oscar Piastri of McLaren will start tenth in the race, which spans 100 kilometers with points awarded only to the top eight finishers.
