Norris takes pole in rain-delayed qualifying

Lando Norris secured pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos during a wet qualifying session that was delayed by nearly an hour and a half due to heavy rain. Motorsport.com reports the session was red-flagged for over an hour because of heavy rain and standing water, with Norris topping the final Q3 shootout using intermediate tyres.

Norris beat George Russell by 0.204 seconds, according to Yahoo Sports. While Russell was second on track, he faces a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted number of engine parts, which promotes Kimi Antonelli to second. Yahoo Sports notes Russell expressed frustration that he could have been faster had his engineer not instructed him to abort a lap before the rain intensified.

Charles Leclerc qualified fourth but faces a 10-place grid penalty, promoting Liam Lawson to third. Other drivers benefiting from the wet conditions included Nico Hulkenberg, who qualified sixth and will start fourth, and Oliver Bearman, who qualified eighth and will start sixth. Fernando Alonso will start eighth, followed by Alex Albon.

Brief written by urgent.news from BBC Sport, Yahoo Sports, Motorsport.com — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.