Formula 1 Sao Paolo Grand Prix qualifying postponed due to heavy rain and Piastri lets Norris through to win sprint

Heavy rain at the Interlagos circuit washed out qualifying for Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix of Brazil.

Organizers announced that the session was postponed on Saturday local time after a two-hour delay.

Qualifying will now take place on Sunday at the São Paulo circuit. More than 60,000 fans began emptying the stands shortly after the announcement.

Earlier, McLaren driver Lando Norris won the sprint race, thanks in no small part to teammate Oscar Piastri, narrowing his gap to championship leader Max Verstappen.

Red Bull’s Verstappen finished third, but lost one position due to a virtual safety car violation.

The gap between Norris and Verstappen, with four Grands Prix and a final sprint race until the end of the season, is now 44 points.

Norris started second on the grid and late in the 24 laps of the sprint race, Piastri made way for him.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who also has a strong chance of winning the title, finished fourth, just ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. The stewards’ decision after the sprint race pushed him to third place, ahead of Verstappen.

Mercedes’s George Russell, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez were next best and within points positions.

Norris appeared angry on team radio about leader Piastri’s pace for most of the sprint race.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing here, buddy,” Norris said. “I thought we talked about this.”

Later, Norris said McLaren had done a good job.

“I’m not proud of it, but we worked well together as a team, so I thank Oscar,” he said. “Oscar deserved a win, but we did what we had to do.”

Initially, Piastri did not elaborate on McLaren’s decision.

“A great day for the team and a lot of points. We learned a lot for tomorrow’s race,” he said.

Speaking to journalists later, Piastri described the race as “a bit tricky”.

“(Giving priority to Norris) is not as much fun as winning,” the Australian driver said. “But we’ve been talking about this for months.”

Three-time champion Verstappen will find it difficult to beat the McLarens in Sunday’s race. He has been given a five-place grid penalty after changing his engine for the sixth time in the season; the maximum allowed is four.

He was also hampered by a safety car breach, with stewards saying the defending champion was “above the minimum time at the end of the virtual safety car” during the sprint race.

The Dutchman received a five-second time penalty that dropped him to fourth place. He also picked up one penalty point and now has a total of seven for the 12-month period.

The tribute to the legendary three-time champion Ayrton Senna was also postponed. His title-winning McLaren will be driven by one of his biggest fans, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

AP/ABC