Magnussen secures bizarre first F1 Pole in Brazil

Kevin Magnussen has taken the first Pole Position of his career in a dramatic qualifying hour with changeable conditions at the Interlagos Circuit.

The Haas driver secured an unlikely first Pole Position of his Formula 1 career by profiting from a well-timed rain shower in the final part of qualifying.

With rain expected in Q3, every driver rushed to set a flying lap in the opening minutes, with Magnussen setting a 1:11.674 to go fastest by two tenths of a second over Red Bull's Max Verstappen, and a further two tenths faster than Mercedes' George Russell.

With improvements expected on the second 'flying' laps, Russell went off-track at Turn 4 and beached his car in the gravel trap, bringing out the red flags.

The rain intensified and, when the session resumed, the track was too wet for improvements, ensuring Magnussen's and Haas' first F1 Pole.

Lando Norris took P4 for McLaren, ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and the two Alpine's of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) finished P8 ahead of Sergio Perez (Haas), whilst Charles Leclerc's gamble on Intermediate tyre backfired en route to P10 for Ferrari.

Drizzle holds off for frontrunners

A tricky Q2 session threatened to descend from slick to damp conditions, with drizzly conditions threatening to catch out the runners.

The 'spitting' conditions held off just enough for drivers to pit for fresh Soft tyres and attempt their final laps, with Russell and Hamilton needing the extra tyres to progress.

Williams' Alex Albon narrowly missed out on a rare Q3 appearance for Williams by ending the session in P11, just ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly.

A mistake on his final lap denied Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel a chance to progress, with the four-time champion finishing P13 ahead of McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Lance Stroll.

Double disappointment for Alfa Romeo

Heavy rain in between practice and qualifying produced a wet track for the start of qualifying, which was drying into the start of the qualifying hour.

With everybody electing to run on the Intermediate tyres, the best times were whittled down to around 1:18s before drivers elected to gamble on slicks.

Gasly, Ricciardo and the two Williams of Albon and Nicholas Latifi were the drivers who trigger the switches for Softs and create a battle to capitalise on the drying conditions.

There was confusion at Ferrari, who were deliberating which set of Softs to use on Leclerc's car before eventually sending the Monegasque out.

Many frontrunners required competitive final laps to progress, including Leclerc, Hamilton and Verstappen, but any major shock was avoided.

Latifi was the driver who finished in P16, just over one tenth of a second away from Ricciardo.

The two Alfa Romeo's were perhaps the biggest surprise elimination of the session, with Guanyu Zhou finishing ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, who admitted to making the incorrect tyre choice and switching to new Intermediates mid-session.

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda took P19, ahead of Mick Schumacher, who finished last in the Haas.