São Paulo Grand Prix: Live qualifying coverage

Formula 1’s final F1 Sprint weekend of the 2023 season is upon us, with the São Paulo Grand Prix. Which means one thing.

Friday qualifying is back!

Later this afternoon the grid will roar to life as 20 drivers tangle to determine who will start on pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Under the F1 Sprint format, teams will have just one hour of practice ahead of the important qualifying session, so every minute of practice time counts.

During Thursday’s press conferences, the F1 Sprint format was a huge topic of conversation. While drivers remain of mixed minds when it comes to the F1 Sprint races themselves, many seem to favor the single practice session during race weekends.

One driver who spoke up in favor of the traditional three practice sessions was rookie Logan Sargeant.

“For me, it’s not preferred,” said the Williams driver. “As a rookie it’s nice to have the three practice sessions. But on top of that I just feel like Saturday is a bit of a standalone day that doesn’t offer a whole lot, as Valtteri [Bottas] said, if you’re not in the top eight. So I prefer a normal weekend.”

The single practice session is scheduled for 10:25 a.m. Eastern tomorrow, with qualifying getting underway at 1:55 p.m. Eastern. We’ll be tracking everything throughout the day, so check back early and often!

(All updates Eastern).

Apologies everyone, we encountered some technical difficulties.

What did you miss? A Q3 that was red flagged due to weather, and another Max Verstappen pole position.

Update 2:16: Things are underway at Interlagos.

Update 2:14: Cars are lining up and it is Oscar Piastri ready to lead them out when the green flag flies.

Update 2:11: We may very well see a wet conclusion to Q1:

Update 2:10: Get your guesses in!

Update 2:06: Qualifying will start at 3:15 local time, 2:15 Eastern.

Update 1:59: Jolyon Palmer in the F1TV broadcast booth notes that there is a 60% chance of rain, and recalls the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix and how difficult it is to race at Interlagos in wet conditions. On that day Palmer was forced to retire after 20 laps due to collision damage suffered in wet conditions.

Update 1:57: Qualifying remains delayed as race marshalls continue to clear debris from the track.

Whether that brings even more weather into the picture remains to be seen. “The clouds, well they are dark overhead,” notes Alex Jacques from the F1TV broadcast booth.

Update 1:53: According to Chris Medland, the start of qualifying has been delayed by around 15 minutes as support crews look to clear the track following an earlier session:

Update 1:47: F1TV is noting that weather could be closing in. It was a factor in qualifying for the F1 Sprint race last season, when Kevin Magnussen scored a shock pole for Haas.

Update 1:41: Also from FP1, there was a collision between Norris and Nico Hülkenberg:

oth drivers were summoned to meet with race officials, but they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Update 1:28: As we tick down to the start of qualifying, here is the classification from FP1, where it was Ferrari atop the timing sheets:

Although, take much of this with a grain of salt. Lots of teams seem to have been focused on race pace and not qualifying pace. McLaren, for example, focused on longer runs and when they took to the track for push laps, they were aborted.

Something the team pointed out on social media: