Norris beats Russell to Interlagos pole in wet qualifying

Lando Norris took pole position at Interlagos for the third consecutive year, ahead of George Russell, who had been seven-tenths quicker in Q2 but aborted his final Q3 lap with a delta in his favour. Telemetry shows Norris built his advantage from the start of the lap, with a better exit from Turn 1 and higher speed through Turn 2.

Norris extended his lead on the short sections from Turn 5 to Turn 6 and Turn 8 to Turn 9, where he ran a gear higher than Russell. The shorter gear ratio on the McLaren reduced wheel torque and the chance of wheelspin, and the advantage grew to almost half a second by the exit of Turn 12.

The session was the first wet qualifying of 2026 and was described as genuinely exciting, with nine different teams reaching Q3 and Mercedes the only team to place both cars in the top 10.