OFFICIAL GRID: Who’s where in Brazil, with Norris on pole, Verstappen 15th and Sainz starting from the pit lane

A marathon qualifying session in the Sao Paulo rain has given us a very mixed schedule for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, with McLaren’s Lando Norris on pole and the Red Bull of his championship rival Max Verstappen a lowly P16.

George Russell’s Mercedes joins Norris on the front row with a happy Yuki Tsunoda third for RB. Esteban Ocon has his best ever grid position here with P4 for Alpine, while Liam Lawson backs up his RB teammate with an impressive fifth.

REPORT: Norris beats Russell and Tsunoda to pole in Sao Paulo amid five red flags in dramatic rain-affected qualifying

Charles Leclerc is the leading Ferrari in sixth, but his teammate Carlos Sainz will start from the pitlane after crashing out in Q2 and then taking on a new power unit. Alex Albon was due to start from P7 but his Williams was too badly damaged to start after his big shunt towards the end of qualifying.

This means that in seventh place (behind Albon’s empty grid spot) we have the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, followed by the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who both made the top 10, despite both crashing out of qualifying.

READ MORE: Tsunoda, Lawson thrill with ‘epic’ qualifying result in Sao Paulo as RB look to catch Haas in constructors’ battle

Stroll’s accident – watch it here – brought out the red flags, meaning championship leader Verstappen could not improve on his Q2 time, and so the Dutchman lines up in eighth row after a five-place grid penalty to take another power unit.

His Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez starts five places ahead in 11th, while the other driver slightly out of position is Lewis Hamilton, 13th in a Mercedes he was far from happy with.