Brazilian Grand Prix – Qualifying: Magnussen on pole position
Sao Paulo is definitely a land of surprises! Kevin Magnussen scored the first pole position of his career in changing conditions.

Q1:
With the gradual arrival of the rain, it was crucial for each driver to set good lap times relatively early in the session in order to take advantage of the still relatively dry track conditions. Charles Leclerc was the first driver to set a lap. The Monegasque’s first time was 2.3 seconds faster than his teammate Carlos Sainz’s initial attempt.
Fernando Alonso set an impressive first lap time shortly after. The Alpine driver placed himself in first position on the time sheet with a 1’18’412, 83 milliseconds ahead of Verstappen.
Seeing that the rain had stopped in Sao Paulo, AlphaTauri made the strategic decision to put Pierre Gasly on soft tires. The numerous laps from the drivers had cleared a dry racing line. McLaren followed suit a few minutes later. Despite a lackluster first lap where the Frenchman appeared to struggle with grip, his second lap catapulted him to the top of the time sheet, four tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Seeing that the soft tires were effective, almost the entire field decided to switch to them and get rid of the intermediate tires. With the track drying rapidly, lap times were melting away like snow in the sun. With 1 minute remaining, the fastest lap time was now Lando Norris’ 1’14’381.
It’s finally Lando Norris who finishes this very eventful first part of qualifying in first position. The McLaren driver recorded a time of 1’13.106. 3 tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was made an honorary citizen of Brazil a few days before the start of this race weekend. Alonso, Vettel, and Perez complete the Top 5.
List of eliminated drivers: Mick Schumacher (20th), Yuki Tsunoda (19th), Valtteri Bottas (18th), Guanyu Zhou (17th), Nicholas Latifi (16th)
Q2 means “Question 2” in English.
Lance Stroll’s engineer was asking him to push as much as possible on his first attempt in order to secure a time on the dry track before the impending rain arrived. Despite being ill on Thursday, Lando Norris’ lack of fitness from the previous day did not prevent him from continuing to show his very good speed in Q2, setting a 1’11’579 which temporarily placed him in first position.
Taking advantage of the slipstream provided by Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso qualified at the top of the time sheet before being beaten by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull by a few thousandths. With 7 minutes remaining, many drivers began to complain about the return of rain in certain areas of the track. Ultimately, the rain shower was very short-lived and the sun took control again with 3 minutes remaining.
One of the biggest penalized by these changing conditions was Pierre Gasly. While the Norman seemed very comfortable since the beginning of the weekend at the Interlagos circuit, he was trapped by the return of good weather. He was eliminated in 12th position. Esteban Ocon took advantage of it. The native of Évreux perfectly managed the timing to register a very good lap with new soft tires and extract himself from the elimination zone.
The big surprise of this second part of qualifications was Kevin Magnussen. Behind the wheel of a car belonging to the midfield team, the Danish driver made the most of his experience to secure a spot in Q3 with the 7th best time of the session.
List of eliminated drivers: Alexander Albon (11th), Pierre Gasly (12th), Sebastian Vettel (13th), Daniel Ricciardo (14th), Lance Stroll (15th)
Q3:
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari made the strange choice to start this third part of qualifying with intermediate tires instead of the soft tires like the rest of the pack. The Monégasque driver, extremely slow, was eventually called back to the pits to have dry tires put on.
While he was in 3rd place in the standings, George Russell had a spin at the 4th turn. Stuck in the gravel, the British driver was forced to retire and caused a red flag. This was crucial for many drivers such as Charles Leclerc or Kevin Magnussen. While the former saw the rain ruin his chances of moving up from 10th position, the latter might have been able to take advantage and secure his first pole position of his career.
The rain persisting on the track, the positions were certain not to change. This allowed Kevin Magnussen to secure the first pole position of his career, as well as the first in the history of his team, Haas F1 Team. After a sabbatical year in 2021, the Danish driver has just proven his return in 2022 was justified. The entire American team’s garage erupted with joy.
Max Verstappen qualified in second position ahead of Russell, Norris, and Sainz.
N° | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Magnussen | Haas F1 Team | 1’13’954 | 1’11’410 | 1’11’674 | |
2 | Verstappen | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1’13’625 | 1’10’881 | 1’11’877 | |
3 | Russell | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1’14’427 | 1’11’318 | 1’12’059 | |
4 | Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1’13’106 | 1’11377 | 1’12’263 | |
5 | Sainz | Scuderia Ferrari | 1’14’680 | 1’10’890 | 1’12’357 | |
6 | Ocon | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1’14’663 | 1’11’587 | 1’12’425 | |
7 | Alonso | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1’13’542 | 1’11’394 | 1’12’504 | |
8 | Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1’13’403 | 1’11’539 | 1’12’611 | |
9 | Perez | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1’13’613 | 1’11’56 | 1’15’601 | |
10 | Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | 1’14’486 | 1’10’950 | ||
11 | Albon | Williams Racing | 1’14’324 | 1’11’631 | ||
12 | Gasly | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1’14’324 | 1’11’675 | ||
13 | Vettel | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1’14’371 | 1’12’678 | ||
14 | Ricciardo | McLaren F1 Team | 1’13’597 | 1’12’140 | ||
15 | Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1’14’398 | 1’12’210 | ||
16 | Latifi | Williams Racing | 1’15’095 | |||
17 | Guanyu | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1’15’197 | |||
18 | Bottas | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1’15’486 | |||
19 | Tsunoda | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1’16’264 | |||
20 | Schumacher | Haas F1 Team | 1’16’361 |