LANDO Norris kept his cool while Interlagos descended into chaos, emerging from a rain-soaked qualifying session with pole position for the São Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris clocked a 1:27.470 to beat Mercedes’ George Russell by 0.204 seconds, with Kimi Antonelli another 0.421 seconds back in third.
READ: Kimi Antonelli completes historic treble in drama-filled Miami GP
But while Norris will retain pole, the front of the grid will look different when the lights go out.
Russell, however, will drop five places on the grid from P2 to seventh place after Mercedes installed his sixth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of the season, exceeding the four-unit allocation. The team opted to take the penalty at overtaking-friendly Interlagos, promoting Antonelli to the front row alongside Norris.
For Norris, though, Saturday was about surviving conditions that kept changing by the lap.
"It's been a long day," Norris said. "It's been a great qualifying. Obviously, to be on pole again here, it's different conditions to last year but I'm very happy.
"It's not easy conditions out there, especially when you know it's going to rain a lot more. It was about getting two laps in at the beginning and not making any mistakes, and that's exactly what we did, so it's been a very good day."
Charles Leclerc was next in fourth, followed by Liam Lawson, Nico Hülkenberg and Isack Hadjar, while Oliver Bearman, Fernando Alonso and Alexander Albon completed the top 10.
The rain may have made qualifying a survival test, but Norris came through it without a mistake.
Now, with the starting order reshuffled by penalties and more wet weather potentially in store, the McLaren driver will have to do it all over again when the lights go out on Sunday.
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