Oscar Piastri will start from pole position in Saturday’s sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix after outqualifying McLaren teammate Lando Norris by 0.029 seconds.
Norris’ title rival, Max Verstappen, qualified in fourth place for Red Bull with Charles Leclerc in third place for Ferrari.
The 24-lap sprint race will take place on Saturday morning before qualifying for Sunday’s full-length Grand Prix.
Friday’s qualifying result presents a slightly awkward situation for McLaren, which has promised to support Norris’ title bid where possible and has said it will favour the British driver in 50/50 situations over Piastri.
Asked if he would sacrifice a win in the sprint for his teammate, Piastri said: “Yes, I said I would from when we first had these discussions.
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“It would be nice to win, but it’s one point different and it’s not the main race. We’ll see, Lando needs the points in the drivers’ standings a lot more than I do, but of course I still want to win.
“So if I put in the effort and have good pace, I’m sure that won’t go unnoticed, but let’s see.”
Eight points are on offer for victory in the sprint, with seven points for second place, six for third, and single-point deductions all the way down to eighth place.
Norris currently trails Verstappen by 47 points in the drivers’ standings with four rounds remaining this season.
Asked if Friday’s result was positive for his championship hopes, Norris said: “I don’t care, I hate these questions so much. I’m just going to race, I don’t care about where he qualifies.
“For me I’m just going to focus on my own job. That’s it. It’s the same question every time, but it doesn’t matter, if he’s first or he’s last I’ll do the best I can.”
Verstappen was 0.320 seconds off the fastest time set by Piastri but managed to outqualify Mexico Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari.
“Yeah, as soon as we went into qualifying it looked like we were definitely off,” Verstappen said. “The car was a bit difficult on the bumps. They did the resurfacing but I think they actually made it worse to drive!
“It’s extremely bumpy everywhere, so that’s not good for our car. All the bumpy areas, the car is jumping around a lot, and it’s costing me quite a bit of lap time unfortunately.”
Mercedes’ George Russell will line up sixth on the grid ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in seventh place, Liam Lawson’s RB in eighth and the Williams of Alex Albon in ninth.
Oliver Bearman, who is standing in for Kevin Magnussen after the Haas regular fell ill overnight, will start tenth in the sprint, but will give the car back to Magnussen for qualifying for the grand prix if the Dane is fit enough to compete. Bearman’s fastest effort in SQ3 was deleted for exceeding track limits.
The result presents a slightly awkward situation for McLaren as Norris remains in contention for the title but will start behind Piastri, who is no longer in realist
Lewis Hamilton failed to make the top ten by 0.097 seconds and will line up 11th on the grid ahead of the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg in 12th.
Sergio Perez’s struggles continued with the 13th fastest time and his fourth failure to make the top ten in his last five attempts across sprint qualifying and full qualifying sessions. Williams’ Franco Colapinto will start 14th on the grid ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was knocked out of the first session after missing out on a place in SQ2 by 0.117 seconds. He will start the sprint race in 16th ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in 17th, the RB of Yuki Tsunoda in 18th, the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll in 19th and Zhou Guanyu, who was 1.7 seconds off Stroll, in 20th.