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Lewis Hamilton dominated all three sessions of qualifying to claim pole position for the sprint trace ahead of the 2021 Brazil Grand Prix. The Briton’s title contender, Max Verstappen, qualified second and was followed by his Mercedes team-mate, Valterri Bottas, who qualified third.
The Briton’s pole lap around the Interlagos circuit was clocked at 1 minute 07.934 seconds. The seven-time world champion outpaced his Dutch title contender by a significant margin of 0.438 seconds and his Finnish team-mate by half a second in the Brazil Grand Prix qualifying session. The gap between Verstappen and Bottas was less than a tenth of a second.
Hamilton, who has a new engine fitted to his car, claimed pole for the sprint race, but has been penalized with a five-place grid penalty for doing so. That's right ahead of the Brazil Grand Prix race, too.
Qualifying fourth for the sprint was Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez. The Mexican was followed by Alpha Tauri driver, Pierre Gasly, who clocked the fifth fastest lap of the session.
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc qualified sixth and seventh fastest, ahead of their McLaren rivals Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, who clocked the eighth and ninth fastest lap of the session. Alpine driver Fernando Alonso was the tenth fastest and rounded off the top 10 of the qualifying session.
Drivers eliminated from the first qualifying session, ahead of the Brazil Grand Prix, included Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi, George Russell, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. Williams' driver, Russell, was out-qualified by his team-mate Latifi for the first time this season.
Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kimi Raikkonen, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon were the drivers knocked out of the second qualifying session. Amidst the five drivers knocked out in Q2, Vettel remains a driver who has failed to make it to the Q3 for six races in a row.
While Hamilton and Verstappen have each failed to win a sprint race this season, both title contenders will have another opportunity to start from the front row and claim a sprint win at the Brazil Grand Prix.
Full results from Qualifying of the F1 Brazil Grand Prix 2021
The full results of the qualifying session ahead of the 2021 Brazil Grand Prix are as follows:
