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Norris hoping for straightforward, dry Sprint, but ready for drama in the wet

Lando Norris says ideal conditions could make things easy for him in Saturday’s Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but admits a complicated weather forecast could shake things up considerably.

McLaren looked the class of the field in FP1 but faced a closer battle than expected in Sprint qualifying, with Norris just beating Kimi Antonelli to pole by 0.097s. The championship leader admits it wasn’t his finest performance but that he completed his first target of starting from the front on Saturday morning.

“Not at my best, but good enough today,” Norris said. “I struggled a little bit more in FP1. It’s a difficult track. It’s an amazing track to drive, but easy to get just timings wrong, bumps wrong. I still got a couple of little bits here or there wrong on my final lap, but still quick enough.

“I think it’s always tricky also when you go onto the soft tire. Do you push 20% more? 10%? 5%? Do you actually back it off a little bit? But a good enough lap for pole, so I’m very happy.”

With the weather forecast including a cyclone warning that is in place for Friday night into Saturday morning, the Sprint could be a wet race, throwing in additional unpredictability.

“Of course, we have to prepare for both [dry and wet] conditions,” Norris said. “I expect the morning to be heavy rain and incredibly windy at the same time. So let’s wait and see what’s going to happen.

“In dry conditions, I think the car’s been performing well. Not nice enough that I’m happy about everything – I’ve got some things to maybe improve on for the quali tomorrow, but the Sprint race, let’s see. If I can cruise to victory, that’d be beautiful.”

For Piastri, third place on the grid behind Antonelli was not ideal but marks a step forward in performance from the last two races, and the Australian sees the start of the weekend at Interlagos as a positive one.

“The soft just was a bit different to what I expected,” Piastri said. “A couple of big moments on my first lap – that was a bit of a shame, but ultimately, I felt much happier today than the last couple of weeks.

“Practice went very well. I think Sprint qualifying, changed a few things, which took a little bit of getting used to again, but ultimately, pretty happy. Would have liked a little bit more, but we can definitely fight with what we’ve got. And there’s obviously a lot more points on Sunday.

“It’s going to be an interesting day. Let’s see what weather we get. But I’ll try and take whatever opportunities there are. I think the pace in the car has been really good today so hopefully that translates to whatever we get.”

Antonelli left a little on the table on his final run, but still came away well satisfied. Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Antonelli’s performance caught the eye as the rookie secured another front row start on a Sprint weekend, but the Italian wasn’t satisfied with his final lap as he targeted pole.

“It was a good session overall,” Antonelli said. “I think SQ1 was a bit scrappy, a bit difficult with traffic. But then we got into our rhythm. The soft lap was a bit of a shame there in the second-to-last sector. But still a decent lap. P2 for tomorrow, so a lot to fight for.

“We’re going to have to take care in the wind. It’s going to rotate quite a lot, so tomorrow we’re going to expect quite different conditions compared to today. Also, the weather is going to be a bit uncertain. But we’ll try to be ready for anything.”

For the third championship contender, however, it was a tough qualifying session. Max Verstappen was only sixth quickest and will have ground to make up if he is to limit the damage compared to the two McLaren drivers.

“A lot of vibration in the car, just a lot of ride problems,” Verstappen said. “So, not what we want. But besides that, I think also we just don’t have the grip. The middle sector is terrible. I just can’t get the car to turn, but at the same time, also, I can’t really rely on the rear. So, yeah, for us, just quite poor, I would say.

“I don’t know [if rain would help]. We’ll find out, right? I mean, I think it’s quite clear that we are lacking something. And I’m not expecting that suddenly to be miles better in the wet. But we’ll see tomorrow.”