Norris credits confidence and a clean lap for wet São Paulo pole

Lando Norris took pole for Sunday's São Paulo Grand Prix with a 1m 27.470s lap before the rain intensified and forced other drivers to abandon their laps. It was his third consecutive pole at Interlagos and McLaren's fourth of 2026.

Confidence in the car was a good starting point in the wet, Norris said. By Q3, he said, the challenge was pushing hard while making as few mistakes as possible. With two laps to put a time together, he had to get the tyres into the right window, brake later and accelerate harder without locking a tyre or spinning the wheels.

The session brought poor visibility and low grip; Norris said small errors in those conditions could be costly. He described his own lap as clean: “I couldn’t have done any more today.”

More rain is possible for Sunday's 71-lap Grand Prix, and Norris said he would need it to win. In his assessment, McLaren does not quite have its competitors' speed in the dry, while rain lets him make up a little of that shortfall. Newly crowned world champion Kimi Antonelli is set to start alongside him once George Russell's five-place grid penalty is applied. Norris called Antonelli “probably the quickest this weekend” and said the challenge would be tough.