Lando Norris clinched the fastest time in the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix sprint shootout to beat Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to pole.
Despite a first sector that was over two tenths slower than the best efforts from the Red Bulls, Norris found time over the rest of the lap to clinch pole position for Saturday's shortened race - albeit with some evident bemusement after feeling that his lap was not particularly special. McLaren put both cars onto the track first in the SQ3 session, with Oscar Piastri opening the final stage with a 1m11.189s benchmark, but Norris' eventual best put that in the shade.
The opening sprint qualifying stage had been brought to a premature end as Esteban Ocon clashed with Alonso at the Curva do Sol, which pitched the Alpine driver into the wall having started his final lap of the opening 12 minutes. Ocon had been dumped into the drop zone and was gearing up to reverse that as the session entered its final minute, but suffered a snap of oversteer and careened into a slow-moving Alonso - who had peeled off the racing line to give Ocon room to pass.
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