Motor racing-Norris puts McLaren on pole for Sao Paulo sprint

My first pole in a long time so I'm happy." Stewards later gave Norris a reprimand for failing to follow the race director's instructions during the session but his grid position remained intact. Mercedes's George Russell was fourth fastest, ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton.

A surprised Lando Norris beat the Red Bulls and put McLaren on pole position for the Sao Paulo sprint race at Interlagos on Saturday.

The Briton was 0.061 seconds quicker than Formula One's triple world champion Max Verstappen in qualifying for the 100km race, with Mexican Sergio Perez third fastest and 0.134 off the pace in the other Red Bull. "Honestly, it felt like one of the worst laps I've done so I'm a little bit surprised," said Norris, who qualified sixth for Sunday's main grand prix, after setting a time of one minute 10.622 seconds.

"But it's a good surprise, I feel like we've made up for yesterday. My first pole in a long time so I'm happy." Stewards later gave Norris a reprimand for failing to follow the race director's instructions during the session but his grid position remained intact.

Mercedes's George Russell was fourth fastest, ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton. AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda, who was also given a post-session reprimand, qualified sixth with team mate Daniel Ricciardo eighth and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc between the two.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz will line up ninth and McLaren's Oscar Piastri 10th for a race in which only the top eight score. "We decided to save the newer tyres for the race," said Sainz. "We decided to sacrifice a bit the sprint quali and the sprint to hopefully have a better race on Sunday."

The first phase of the shootout was red-flagged with 33 seconds remaining after Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso collided at turn three. Ocon branded his former team mate an idiot over the radio after he slammed into the barriers, but double world champion Alonso said the Frenchman had driven into him.

Television replays suggested Ocon suffered oversteer and lost control before the impact, with Alonso returning to the pits with a puncture and playing no further part in the shootout. "I didn't see the replay yet, someone told me he locked the car apparently. It was one of those situations, wrong place, wrong moment," said Alonso.

Stewards heard from both drivers and took no further action after deciding neither was wholly or predominantly to blame. Aston Martin's Lance Stroll qualified 17th, less than a day after he and Alonso qualified third and fourth for the grand prix.

The second phase was delayed for barrier repairs, with plenty of work for the Alpine and Aston mechanics ahead of the later sprint race. The session was dry and sunny, unlike Friday's qualifying that was halted under dark skies streaked by lightning as strong winds and rain swept in, damaging structures including the roof of one of the grandstands.

Organisers said six fans were treated by the race's staff but no one sustained major injuries. Sunday is expected to be sunny, with some clouds in the sky but no rain. (Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Clare Fallon)