Verstappen fury, Norris pole as five crashes hit crazy Brazil qualifying

Lando Norris landed pole position from a wet and chaotic qualifying session that involved an astonishing five crashes.

Williams pair Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari, and Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso all sparked red flags.

For Max Verstappen, the Stroll crash at the end of Q2 proved disastrous as he was gearing up to set a hot lap when the Canadian slid off the track in the middle of the Senna S.

When the session was halted 40 seconds after Stroll's incident, it meant there was no time left in the session for the remaining drivers affected to return to the track.

Verstappen was left furious with the situation. "A car hits the wall it needs to be straight red. I don't understand why it needs to take 30 to 40 seconds for a red flag to come. It's...[swear words bleeped out]."

"Honestly, I let it go. It's so stupid anyway to talk about. It's ridiculous."

Verstappen was only 12th quickest at that stage, meaning he will start a wretched 17th due to his RB20 requiring a new internal combustion engine ahead of the weekend, beyond the allocation, and incurring a five-place grid penalty.

Norris will be joined on the front row by Mercedes' George Russell, with RB's Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon in his Alpine on the second row, third and fourth quickest, followed by the second RB of Liam Lawson.

It is the fifth pole in the past seven grands prix for Norris, whilst it is Tsunoda's highest grid slot.

Hamilton shocker

It was the earliest start to qualifying in F1 history, with the session commencing at 7.30am local time [10.30am BST].

Rain had continued overnight and through into the morning but by the time qualifying started, it had eased considerably, leading to a queue of cars in the pit lane to get out on track and post a lap time, spearheaded by Albon.

With the cars fuelled for the opening 18 minutes, they created a dry-ish line on the full-wet tyres, and with the fuel dropping, the times naturally tumbled.

Albon's opener was a 1:32.456s, but that was quickly usurped, with Ocon the first to dip below 90 seconds with a 1:29.916s.

Given the conditions, there were naturally minor offs, including Liam Lawson in his RB, Stake F1's Zhou Guanyu and Stroll.

Midway through, the session had to be red-flagged when Colapinto, in his first wet F1 outing since his promotion to Williams, slid off track at Turn 3, out of the Senna S.

At that stage, Tsunoda led the way with a 1:29.172s, whilst Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Russell were in the danger zone, and with the rain increasing whilst the track cleared, there was a threat of them being eliminated.

Hamilton managed to elevate himself up to 14th on his first lap on his return, whilst Russell rose to second on the timesheet on his second lap after making a mistake on his opener, dropping his team-mate back into the bottom five.

With Hamilton's next lap slower, it placed him under considerable pressure to nail it on his final opportunity, and for a few seconds, it appeared as if he would scrape through.

Hamilton's lap relegated Norris into the drop zero, and after a poor first sector, it appeared as if the Briton would be knocked out, but he managed to conjure reasonable second and third sectors.

By the end of Q1, Norris breathed a sigh of relief as he sat 15th, two-tenths of a second faster than an eliminated Hamilton, who was joined in the bottom five by Haas duo Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg, either side of Colapinto, with Zhou slowest for the fourth consecutive GP.

Verstappen ended up finishing fastest with a 1:28.522s.

Verstappen and Perez out

For the start of Q2, with the rain easing, Piastri took a gamble by switching to the intermediates, the only driver to do so.

Sainz set the early benchmark with a lap of 1:29.406s, but Verstappen shattered that by almost two seconds a few minutes later. 

As for Piastri, with the inters coming to him as the conditions improved, his second lap saw him go ahead by six-tenths with a 1:27.141s, sparking a rush for all his rivals to switch rubber. On his next tour, he was quicker still with a 1:25.179s.

But with just under six minutes remaining, Sainz brought out the red flags again, his Ferrari sliding off track midway through the Senna S and side-on into a barrier.

With more rain coming, Norris was under threat with only the 11th-quickest time, over four seconds slower than Piastri.

On his return to the track, and first out of the pit lane, Norris improved to third quickest, but aware everyone behind him would also improve, particularly as he was still 1.3s behind Piastri.

But a third red flag spelled disaster for Red Bull, resulting in Verstappen and Perez exiting Q2 as Aston Martin's Lance Stroll fell victim to the conditions.

With Verstappen building up to his final hot lap, race control opted to red-flag the session 40 seconds after Stroll crashed, leaving the Dutchman and team-mate Sergio Perez in the drop zone, and with no time to restart.

F1 title rival Norris, meanwhile, was quickest in Q2 when the session was halted.

For Q3, the session was only five minutes old when there was a fourth red flag, this time for Alonso crashing out.

At that stage, Norris was leading the way with a lap of 1:24.158 ahead of Albon and Piastri. Albon, though, became the fifth casualty with a very heavy shunt out of Turn 1 that destroyed the rear of his Williams.

It left seven cars on the track for the final three minutes, and in the closing stages the track ramped up again.

At one stage, Albon was still second on the timesheet but as the lap times dropped, he will now start seventh behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc - if the car can be repaired.

Piastri could only manage eighth, ahead of Alonso and Stroll, who will start ninth and 10th. Although Stroll crashed at the end of Q2, his time was good enough to get him into the top-10 shoot-out.