Max Verstappen On Pole Ahead Of Charles Leclerc For Brazilian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen and Red Bull anticipated the weather conditions perfectly to secure pole position ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix in a rain-curtailed qualifying session that ended in wild thunderstorms on Friday. The newly-crowned three-time world champion clocked a best lap in one minute and 10.727 seconds to outpace Leclerc by 0.294 seconds with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso taking third and fourth places to lock out the second row of the grid for Aston Martin.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes ahead of team-mate George Russell, leaving a disappointed Lando Norris seventh for McLaren, after promising much more.

Carlos Sainz qualified eighth in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and Oscar Piastri, who did not manage to clock a time in Q3 for McLaren.

It was Verstappen's 11th pole position of the season and lifted him to 31 for his career, one clear of Nico Rosberg and eighth in the all-time list of all-time.

"We didn't know when it was coming and when it would hit," said Verstappen of the storm.

"Of course, it is insane weather! My laps felt terrible and Charles and I discussed this and the hectic wind we had in the final laps.

"For the race, I think it seems very close."

Leclerc said: "In my career, I have never experienced anything like this. There was no rain, but also no grip and it was difficult to drive. It was very weird. I am happy to be on P2."

For Stroll, it was a result that ended a run of poor qualifying results.

"The car felt good, but it was tricky and my lap was quite bad -- the weather changed so much. I missed a lot of apexes, but it was good enough for the top three. A great result for the team."

Qualifying delayed

The session was