Kevin Magnussen caused a sensation at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix by qualifying the Haas car to pole position for Saturday’s sprint race. The Dane, who returned to Formula 1 this season after a year out, took his and his team’s first pole with a remarkable performance at Interlagos. Magnussen nailed the only dry lap before a red flag, during which rain began to fall. He will start Saturday’s sprint race ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Mercedes’ George Russell was third, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton in eighth. And there was embarrassment for Ferrari, who made the latest in a series of strategy errors this season, sending Charles Leclerc out on intermediate tires to start the final session. Ferrari let themselves be fooled by the weather forecast which called for rain, but it didn’t come soon enough, and there were protests over the radio as Leclerc realized everyone else had managed a lap and would start 10th. Magnussen was in disbelief, grinning from ear to ear in the car as it became clear the weather was too wet to improve once the session resumed, then jumped out of the car and celebrated with his team afterwards.
How did this happen?
It was a stunning performance from Magnussen, and one that will go down as one of the biggest shocks in F1 history. Haas took him out on track first, so he had a clear lap, and he just nailed the lap to finish 0.207s quicker than two-time champion Verstappen, who admitted he had ruined his own chances by closing in at Turn Eight. Before returning to the pits, he asked the team where he was. When told: “P1”, he replied: “You’re kidding me. I’ve never felt like this in my life.” He then warned the team not to celebrate too soon, but when the rain came down during the break, his pole went into concrete. “I don’t know what to say,” Magnussen said afterward. “The team put me on track at just the right time. We were first out in the pit lane and we did a pretty decent lap and we’re on pole. It’s unbelievable.” Magnussen, who left Haas at the end of 2020, thanked the team for bringing him back and giving him the chance to revive his career when they dropped Russian Nikita Mazepin after the invasion of Ukraine. “Thanks to the team, Gene Haas,” he said. “I came back this year after a year and it’s just fantastic.” Haas has struggled since entering the sport in 2016
What else happened?
It was Russell who caused the session-defining red flag – he lost control in Turn Four trying a second lap, putting his outside wheels on the white line and spinning into the gravel trap. It looked like he might get out as he reached the paved escape route between the gravel and the dam, but he turned the Mercedes around when he got there and it became a beach. Russell said: “I’m delighted to be P3 and congratulations to Kevin – what a fantastic job Haas have done too. P3 is not necessarily where we wanted to be but a very good place to start the sprint race. “The best chance we have of trying to catch Max is to have mixed conditions.” McLaren’s Lando Norris will start fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, followed by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who was stuck behind Leclerc on his lap.
More Ferrari disappointment
Ferrari, meanwhile, found themselves with more questions to ask about their race management after losing Leclerc’s chances. They already had a misunderstanding earlier in practice when they sought a tire change in the pit lane when they switched from intermediates to slicks during the first qualifying session, and Leclerc was left questioning what was going on as his car sat wheelless with Sainz . waiting for his tires back. But that was nothing compared to what happened in the third quarter. The fundamental part of any tire choice is being on the right ones at the right time, but Ferrari were ahead and gambled to send Leclerc out in the middle, when the oncoming rain hadn’t started. “I’m the only one in the inters,” asked Leclerc as he left the pits. Further around the lap, he said, “No rain,” but was told, “Rain at Turn 12, we believe.” His mechanic then made a frantic call to try and get him into the pit, shouting: “Box, box, box,” over the radio as he completed the outside lap. But Leclerc, realizing that the rain was coming and that this may well be his fastest lap of the session even on the wrong tyres, held them off. “Guys, I have to push now,” he said. Then, when asked where he was, he sarcastically replied, “Fine. Beautiful”. And then he cursed, frustrated that he started a race he should have at least been on the front row for down in 10th place. “We were expecting some rain that never came,” he said once outside the car. “I’ll talk to the team and try to figure out what we can do better in these conditions. Extremely disappointed. The pace was there, but whatever.”
