JAKARTA - Haas driver Kevin Magnussen won his first pole position in his Formula 1 career after appearing fastest in the Sao Paulo sprint race qualifying round in Interlagos, Brazil, Friday local time.
Magnussen benefited from a number of factors during the Q3 session. He was at the forefront of queuing out the pit lane before the final qualifying session due to the Haas team garage, as the last ranked team in the standings last season, located at the very end of the pit exit.
Amid the threat of rain and wet track, the Danish driver recorded a fastest time of 1:11,674 in his first attempt to use slick tires while the track was dry enough before Mercedes driver George Russell exited the track and was stuck on the ceiling so the qualifying session was temporarily suspended with eight minutes remaining.
The riders returned to the garage to wait for the track to be declared safe, but it rained on the track. Red Bull team driver Sergio Perez had time to return to the track using intermediate tires but the wet track conditions made it impossible to score a lap that was better than dry conditions, became a reference for the team and other riders to finish the qualifiers early.
Magnussen will start the third sprint race of the season in Brazil on Saturday ahead of world champion Max Verstappen who secures P2 for Red Bull by 0.203 seconds.
Russell's lap is enough to take him to P3 which will be accompanied by McLaren's Lando Norris in the second row.
"I don't know what to say," said Magnussen after winning the pole as quoted by the official Formula 1 website, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, November 12.
"The team put me in a perfect position, had a pretty good lap and we were in pole. This is amazing, thank you. Maximum attack (tomorrow), let's have some fun."
Carlos Sainz is the leading Ferrari driver at P5 for the sprint later, ahead of Alpine team duo Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton, who finished P8, also tried to return to the track with intermediate tires to assess track conditions although in the end it was not possible to improve his position.
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc was again recorded by Ferrari's strategy. The Monaco rider was the only one who used intermediate tires in early Q3.
When exiting the pit after changing tires, Russell's accident caused a loss to Leclerc, who had not recorded time between ten competing riders in Q3.
Leclerc will start behind Perez. The fastest eight riders in the sprint race can get points, which is eight points for the winner, seven for P2 and so on for one point for P8. The position of finishing the 100km race will determine the starting grid for the main race on Sunday.
After the constructors and drivers' titles were won by Red Bull and Verstappen, Ferrari is now competing with Mercedes for second place in the standings. The Italian manufacturer is 40 points ahead with 96 points up for grabs from Brazil to the final series of the Abu Dhabi season.
Alpine and McLaren were separated by seven points in the fourth place, while Aston Martin was four points behind sixth place Alfa Romeo.
Qualification results for the sprint race GP Sao Paulo: 1 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team 1:11,6742 Max Verstappen Oracle Red Bull Racing 1:11,8773 George Russell Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1:12,0594 Lando Norris McLaren F1 Team 1:12,2635 Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari 1:12,3576 Esteban Ocon BWT Alpine F1 Team 1:12,4257 Fernando Alonso BWT Alpine F1 Team 1:12,5048 Lewis Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1:12,6119 Sergio Perez Oracle Bull Racing 1:15,60110 Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari Without a time record of 11 Alex Albon Williams Racing12 Pierre Gas Scuderia Alpha Tauri13 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team14 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren F1 Team15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team16 Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing 17 Zhousama Alfaat Romeo F1 Team Orlen19 Yuki Tsunoda Scuderia AlphaTauri20 Mick Schumacher Haas F1 Team
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