00:01Daniel Ricciardo is in the drop zone along with Hulkenberg, Joe, Magnussen and Sargent.
00:05Sainz comes over the line and improves up to 6th.
00:08Just in behind Lando Norris who didn't feel brave enough to stay in the garage either.
00:11So everyone behind Albin has felt the need to get out there and try and improve.
00:15And that's because the times are coming in thick and fast now.
00:18Hulkenberg has done the fastest first sector. Sargent provisionally gets himself through into Q2.
00:23But there's going to be improvements behind, surely.
00:25So George Russell now in 14th position.
00:28The British driver who took his maiden Grand Prix victory here.
00:32His teammate has just gone into 4th position.
00:34Russell manages to go to the front of the field.
00:37So a much cleaner lap this time by Russell who immediately bails out
00:40because he's got the Alpine attacking behind.
00:42This is Hulkenberg on pole here back in 2010 for Williams.
00:46P3 for Haas at the moment.
00:49Daniel Ricciardo looking to try and make his way through.
00:51Alonso has just gone to 6th.
00:53Tsunoda is the driver on the brink.
00:55And will Daniel Ricciardo put him in there? No!
00:57Daniel Ricciardo, after the joy of Mexico City, is out in the first part of qualifying.
01:02He missed out by 6 thousandths of a second.
01:05Tsunoda's got to try and improve because Ocon is the man that can beat him then.
01:09Here's Tsunoda to the line.
01:10Tsunoda goes over the line. Can he improve his time? No, he's vulnerable.
01:13Esteban Ocon has an opportunity and he is up by a tenth of a second.
01:18Esteban Ocon fights his way through to the next stage of qualifying.
01:23Look at the margins between making it through like Pierre Gasly and heading out in the first part of qualifying.
01:29Both Alfa Tauri's missing out by half a tenth.
01:34Okay, 37, 36, 35 seconds to go.
01:38Everyone looking for an improvement. Not a personal best for Kevin Magnussen.
01:41Ocon as well. Not with what he needed.
01:43Over the line goes Magnussen. Only P13. This is Esteban Ocon.
01:48And Hulkenberg is out in 11th as well. He's just improved. Magnussen is out in 13th.
01:53Albon won't go back out of the pits. So it's just Gasly or Ocon to try and take this away
01:58from Stroll.
01:59Said it would be a big move. Stroll's in the pits and he's going to be waiting this one out.
02:03It's going to be Gasly or Stroll.
02:05Ocon can't get there. So it's over to Pierre Gasly. Hamilton improves up to sixth position.
02:11Lance Stroll gave himself a good effort with his first run.
02:15Now Stroll is looking over his shoulder at Pierre Gasly. Looking for the time. It's only 13th.
02:20He's behind his teammate. He's behind the Aston Martin.
02:23It's Hulkenberg, Ocon, Gasly, Magnussen and Albon who found themselves in the drop zone at the wrong time.
02:30No improvement found as well. Charles Leclerc across the line. Only to seventh fastest.
02:34Lance Stroll has made it into Q3 for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix earlier in the year.
02:40Piastri no longer has to stress and that is our top 10 shootout set for what is set to be
02:46a thrilling Q3.
02:49McLaren versus Red Bull and Alonso suddenly has dialed himself back into some form.
02:56We're unexpected one.
02:57Seven minutes into the session.
03:00Okay.
03:01If you look at the clouds, if we gave you a still image, you would expect biblical rain any moment
03:08now.
03:08But it is bone dry at the start and we're on board with the world champion chasing his 11th pole
03:13position of the season today.
03:15He's got a dry track at the start of the lap when he have to live on his mighty motor
03:20racing instincts towards the end.
03:21The teams have played it cool.
03:232.6 miles between one of these drivers and pole position for the Sao Paolo Grand Prix.
03:29Fastest first sector for Verstappen then.
03:31He had a lot of understood through the first corner.
03:33Hamilton is nowhere in the first sector.
03:36Hamilton made a mistake at the center rest and that could be really costly.
03:38He's four tenths down on Verstappen on a day of small margins.
03:42That's a big one.
03:43Okay.
03:44Verstappen pushing on now, looking to return to the front of the field.
03:48Verstappen was expecting pole position a week ago.
03:51We got a shock out of nowhere.
03:53A shock that even surprised Ferrari.
03:55Waiting, waiting, waiting to get on the power.
03:57And when he delivers it, it is a mighty stable car in comparison to maybe, say,
04:02what we've seen from Oscar Piastri through those corners earlier in the weekend.
04:06The rain is expected in a few moments time.
04:09Everyone is building up to their push laps.
04:11But it has been a clean lap.
04:13It has been a tidy lap.
04:14It might be a pole position lap for Max Verstappen over the line into the darkness.
04:18But he's shining at the front of the field, thanks to a 1.10.7.
04:22Does anyone have an answer to that at the moment?
04:25Well, the closest man is Oscar Piastri, who's just hundreds away in the first sector.
04:29Norris is very close to his teammate as well,
04:31but they're all dropping a little bit to Verstappen in the middle.
04:33We're on board with Charles Leclerc trying to make it a hat-trick of pole positions in a row.
04:37How close can he get?
04:38Well, he goes to the front row, but he is very nearly three-tenths of a second away.
04:43What can Lando Norris do?
04:45He's nowhere. He is absolutely nowhere on that lap.
04:48He's seventh fastest with rain imminent.
04:51Is there a moment now?
04:52Yellow flag is out in the third sector of the racetrack.
04:55Sainz is only eighth and the rain is coming down.
04:57Off the road goes Oscar Piastri at the 12th turn.
05:00It's Verstappen, Leclerc, Lance Stroll,
05:02in third place ahead of Fernando Alonso.
05:06Eight minutes to go is the rain at that part of the circuit.
05:09Well, let's see what Perez can do over the line.
05:11McLaren have not called this rider at all, nor have Red Bull with Checo.
05:16They waited and they didn't get the payback.
05:18Those that went out at the front had the advantage.
05:21And McLaren, seventh, tenth for Piastri, who'd already lost a chunk in the middle.
05:26And now that could be it.
05:28This is Oscar Piastri heading in to Yung Chao corner.
05:33No grip and lucky to keep it out of the barriers.
05:35Yeah, he did well to slow down.
05:37When you're on slick tires and the track gets slippery and you're committing like it's a qualifying lap,
05:41that is what happens.
05:44It's night.
05:45Yeah, great.
05:47Well, it's not.
05:48But the lights I've never seen.
05:49I've been watching Formula One around this circuit for years.
05:52Since 1998, I have never seen those lights on the pit straight of Interlagos.
05:57What is going on?
05:59We're joining Bahrain, Singapore, Jeddah.
06:05Interlagos has become a night race.
06:07Absolutely incredible pictures.
06:09I've already said it, but I think in my whole career I've never experienced that.
06:13It felt like it was raining, but there's no rain around.
06:17This is super weird.
06:20The session is suspended.
06:22The session will not be resumed.
06:24And Max Verstappen, what a shot that was.
06:26There's going to be some amazing photographs of that Red Bull heading in to the all-black sky.
06:33But it was an incredible lap to just deliver what you needed to.
06:37Charles Leclerc will be delighted.
06:38Happiest man, I think, in that top ten will be Lance Stroll.
06:41His season's best in third place.
06:44Then Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Sainz, Perez and Piastri,
06:48who spun at Unchau Corner.
06:49But it's Max Verstappen once again in the wet, in the dry.
06:54Anything you throw at him, he's got an answer.
06:57And in his possession, an 11th pole position of the season.
07:01.
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