Norris Sensationally Wins Sprint Shootout At Sao Paulo Grand Prix

McLaren's Lando Norris won the Sprint Shootout for the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, securing a pole position for the Sprint Race.

The 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix at the Interlagos is the last Sprint weekend of the 2023 F1 season, and after previous success in Sprints, McLaren seems to be ahead of the competition once again.

It was an interesting session, which came one day after Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the qualifying for Sunday's race. That qualifying session was affected by rain and red-flagged, meaning the drivers set only one fast lap in the Q3.

This time around, all the drivers had to use medium compound tires in the first two parts of the shootout. There was a little bit of waiting time for the drivers between SQ1 and SQ2 after Alpine's Esteban Ocon, and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso collided at the end of the SQ1.

But that didn't stop the best from getting to the SQ3, as five team had two cars in the last part of the Sprint Shootout - Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, and AlphaTauri.

In the SQ3, every driver completed only one lap on the soft compound of tires, and it was a real shootout. Initially, it seemed that the Red Bull's may be the fastest, with Verstappen leading and Sergio Perez having a quick lap too.

However, it was Norris who put his car on the pole position with lap time of 1:10.622, 0.061 seconds ahead of Verstappen, and 0.134 ahead of Perez.

Behind them were Mercedes' drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who placed fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda, who leads the team into what seems to be another successful weekend.

One team that will be certainly disappointed is Ferrari as Charles Leclerc finished only seventh, while Carlos Sainz finished ninth. Daniel Ricciardo took the eighth place, and Oscar Piastri couldn't follow up on his teammate's success, ending tenth.

For Norris the front-row start for the Sprint Race may be significant for the World Drivers' Championship, as he's currently sixth, 14 points behind Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, who both have 183 points.

If the Sprint was to be finished as the drivers will line up on the grid, the British driver would decrease his deficit to the Spanish drivers to six points.