2023 São Paulo Grand Prix – qualifying “A big opportunity missed today"

Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Friday, 3 November

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix.

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FP1 1m13.629s (+1.897s) 25 laps 19th
Q1 1m10.623s (Softs)   11th
Q2 1m10.021s (Softs)   1st
Q3 1m11.987s (Softs)   7th

“Not at all the result we wanted. We showed strong pace in the dry, but we just didn’t do a good enough job of getting on track at the right time with the rain coming in. A real shame, it’s pretty disappointing for the team as it’s a big opportunity missed today. A tough start to the weekend but we’ll do our best tomorrow in the Sprint to score positive points.”

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FP1 1m13.838s (+2.106s) 28 laps 20th
Q1 1m10.519s (Softs)   5th
Q2 1m10.330s (Softs)   9th
Q3 No time set   10th

“P10 in qualifying this afternoon. Q3 was obviously not very good for us, especially with the session ended early because of the weather. I’m not sure what really happened with the grip, but we just struggled a lot, which is a shame as we had good pace. Things were looking alright until that point but anyway, we will try again tomorrow and see what we can do in the Sprint.”

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“We had a strong qualifying session from a car performance point of view, which saw us be very competitive in Q1 and Q2. Unfortunately, when it came to Q3, everything was decided in the couple of minutes at the start of the session as the conditions got rapidly worse. We weren’t at the front of the group of cars, and actually the position and the time on track became the decisive factor. This meant we couldn’t capitalise on the good performance on a day in which we could certainly have been at the front of the grid. Anyhow, we take the positive of a competitive car and the learning for the team on a missed opportunity. We still have Sprint Shootout Qualifying tomorrow, and the Sprint, before a Grand Prix in which it’s possible to overtake and recover, that’s the plan for Sunday.”

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