Brazil - Sprint Qualifying

After a somewhat surprising Friday qualifying session, Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli lined up on the front row of the sprint grid. Behind them were their teammates, Oscar Piastri and George Russell, both waiting for an opportunity to improve their positions. With the intra-team rivalries, the wet track, and the split tire strategies, the sprint was shaping up to be one that fans would remember for a long time. 

It didn't take long for the first yellow flag to wave over the circuit. During the very first lap, as Piastri and Antonelli fought for second position, Oliver Bearman and Liam Lawson made contact, which led to the Haas driver spinning and tumbling down the order. He managed to rejoin the race, so the track was quickly cleared. In the meantime, Max Verstappen moved up to P5, having overtaken Fernando Alonso. He wasn't the only one out of the top eight to make up some places. Both Ferrari drivers improved in the order, with Charles Leclerc finishing the first lap seventh, and Lewis Hamilton finding himself right behind him. 

The slippery track provided quite the challenge. All drivers needed to focus on keeping their cars pointing in the right direction. Of course, an incident was just a matter of time, and that time came on lap six. Right after the cars sped through the start/finish straight, Piastri locked up and slid on the track. He wasn't able to stop his McLaren from hitting the wall. A few seconds later, Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto both went out by the same corner. A safety car was called to the track, but race control quickly realised that more work would be needed to pick up the debris left behind after the incident. The sprint was therefore red-flagged.

A rolling start set the drivers, many of whom had bolted on new sets of tires during the unplanned break, off on the remaining 18 laps of the sprint. As soon as racing was resumed, Russell tried to find a way past his teammate, and Verstappen made a mistake, which allowed Alonso to get close enough to attempt an overtake. In the end, as the lap came ot an end, the order remained the same. 

After the restart, the race settled into a comfortable, if a bit repetitive rhythm. The only fight worth following was that between Leclerc and Alonso, with the Monegasque constantly searching for the right moment ot move past the two-time champion. The tension picked up around lap 17 when Norris' softs seemed to start falling away, giving Antonelli a chance to eat away at the distance that had separated the two of them. 

For the last few laps of the race, all fans watched the difference between the two drivers fighting for the lead, tearing their eyes away from it only to watch Leclerc finally find a way past Alonso. In the end, despite his best efforts, Antonelli couldn't overtake Norris, giving the McLaren driver yet another sprint win to add to his collection. However, despite crossing the finish line first, the Brit wasn't the man who caught everyone's attention during the last lap. That 'privilege' went to Gabriel Bortoleto, who was involved in a dangerous-looking last-minute crash. Thankfully, he wasn't harmed in the incident. 

Order of the grid:

1. Lando Norris

2. Kimi Antonelli

3. George Russell

4. Max Verstappen

5. Charles Leclerc

6. Fernando Alonso

7. Lewis Hamilton

8. Pierre Gasly

9. Lance Stroll

10. Isack Hadjar

11. Esteban Ocon

12. Oliver Bearman

13. Liam Lawson

14. Yuki Tsunoda

15. Carlos Sainz

16. Nico Hulkenberg

17. Alex Albon

18. Gabriel Bortoleto

DNF: Oscar Piastri, Franco Colapinto