Lando Norris’ bid to win his maiden world championship was dealt a seismic boost in Interlagos after he took a brilliant pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix, with rival Max Verstappen a shock 17th.
The race is now set to start at 3:30pm (GMT) – 12:30pm local time.
Verstappen was eliminated from a chaotic rain-hit qualifying on Sunday morning, carried over a day after Saturday’s running was abandoned due to bad weather.
The triple world champion had been on course to improve his time in the wet conditions but Lance Stroll’s crash resulted in the third of an astonishing five red flags, and Q2 did not resume.
It left a furious Verstappen in 12th and, with the Dutchman to serve a five-place engine penalty, he will be way down the order for the 71-lap race later on Sunday.
“The car hits the wall, and it needs to be a straight red,” said Verstappen.
“I don’t understand why it needs to take 30 to 40 seconds for a red flag to come out. It’s just b***s***. It’s so stupid anyway to talk about. It’s ridiculous.”
Verstappen was seen gesticulating wildly with his left hand from inside his cockpit after he was told the running had been suspended. His father, Jos, banged his fist on a table at the back of the Red Bull garage, while the Dutch driver’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase was left with his head in his hands on the team’s pit wall.
Verstappen’s dramatic demise handed the advantage to Norris, who trails his Red Bull rival by 44 points with 132 still available across the remaining four rounds.
And in the treacherous conditions, which saw both Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon crash out of Q3, the British driver held his nerve to put his McLaren at the front of the grid for the race which has been brought forward by 90 minutes to 12:30pm local time (3:30pm) in an attempt to beat the bad weather.
“There was a lot going on but I am super super happy,” said Norris after taking his eighth career pole
“I was not comfortable at the beginning of qualifying so I am delighted to be on pole but a little surprised.
“You saw how many people went off and crashed so it was easy to end up badly, in the wall, or not even make the race. I have got some quick guys behind. I hope we can get a race in later. That will be a good start.”
George Russell took second for Mercedes, 0.173 seconds behind Norris to form an all-British front row. Yuki Tsunoda impressed for RB to qualify third.
