The fifth Sprint race of the season will feature an all-McLaren front row when it gets underway at 11 o’clock local time tomorrow. Oscar Piastri was quickest in SQ3, getting under the 1’09” barrier with a 1’08”899, beating team-mate Lando Norris by just 29 thousandths. It’s the second time the Australian has been quickest in Sprint Qualifying, following on from last year at Lusail (Qatar) when he went on to win the “short” race.

On the second row, we find Charles Leclerc for Ferrari (1’09”153) and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull (1’09”219). Eight teams, the three already mentioned along with Mercedes with George Russell, Alpine with Pierre Gasly, Racing Bulls with Liam Lawson, Williams with Alexander Albon and Haas with Oliver Bearman, all made it to Q3. That left just Sauber, who at least got to SQ2 with Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both going out in SQ1.

THE DAY ON TRACK
In the only free practice session this weekend, only the Soft and Medium compound tyres were used, apart from the usual scrubbing-in of Hards by both Aston Martin drivers. The teams focussed mainly on finding the best set-up, with some of them doing long runs, although with various levels of fuel on board.

From one session to the next, the temperatures changed considerably, especially on the track. The air reached 31 °C in FP, but dropped to 21°C by the end of SQ, while the track temperature plummeted from a peak of 57°C at 12.15 to 36°C at 16.30. This was mainly down to cloud cover which in the grid-deciding session prevented the sun from heating up the new track surface, as it had done in free practice.

Oscar Piastri was presented with the Pirelli Sprint Qualifying Award by two special fans and content creators, chosen by the promoter. Luca Morelli and Murilo Bellini are two youngsters who communicate their passion for Formula 1 on social networks, with a light-hearted and fun tone of voice and between them they already have over 400,000 followers on Instagram.

SIMONE BERRA – CHIEF ENGINEER
“When one comes to a resurfaced track there are always a lot of unknowns, even if simulations are getting ever more sophisticated. Even a historic track like Interlagos is no exception, as the track has been completely resurfaced. From what we could tell from measurements taken in recent days and from today’s activity on track, some significant points have emerged. The surface is very smooth and its level of abrasiveness is significantly lower than what we measured last year. But there are many bumps which make life complicated for the teams and drivers. The grip level was initially in line with what we have seen in the past, but it increased very markedly as the cars did more and more laps, which is entirely predictable. Furthermore, we saw that track temperature could oscillate a lot, especially dependent on cloud cover. Another unknown, but how important it will be we will only know if it happens, is the cars’ grip level in the wet. At the moment, the forecast is for a significant chance of rain for tomorrow afternoon and even more so on Sunday and so this will be a parameter to keep in mind.

In terms of how the compounds behaved and how the teams chose to use them, we saw that all teams kept the two sets of Hards for the rest of the weekend. The Medium is the clear favourite for the Sprint, so that we can predict a two-stop race on Sunday, using the Medium and the Hard, along the lines of last year. One should remember that the compounds here are one step softer than last year, meaning that today’s hard is last year’s Medium and the 2024 Medium is the 2023 Soft. It is hard to imagine this year’s soft, the C5, being raced, even if it’s performing well. One matter we have to analyse carefully in the next few hours is why the Soft did not produce the upturn in performance we had predicted in SQ. That said, the quickest time of the day set by Norris in SQ3, is 1”723 quicker than last year’s best."