The two-time world champion pulverized the records of the weekend by being the only one who managed to go under 1:24 (1:23.824).
The Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) was fourth and his compatriot Fernando Alonso (Alpine) was eliminated in Q2 with the eleventh timewhile, in the fight for the drivers’ runner-up, the Mexican Sergio Checo Pérez (Red Bull) will start second, ahead of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), third.
the mercedeswho are fighting with Ferrari for the constructors’ sub-championship, They were further behind than expected, with the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton fifth and his compatriot George Russell, brand new winner in Brazil, sixth.
In the fight for fourth place in the manufacturers, between Alpine and McLaren, the British Lando Norris (McLaren) managed to finish first in the ‘other’ leagueseventh, ahead of the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine).
In his last weekend in Formula 1, the German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) was ninth, and will share a row on the grid with the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), who says goodbye to the team and finalizes his move to Red Bull as third pilot.
Also in his last qualifying with his current team, Alpinethe Spanish Fernando Alonso (Alpine) he missed out on Q3 by 28 thousandths of a second.
The two-time champion had already been close to elimination in Q1, but then he avoided it by one tenth and with the fifteenth fastest time of the session.
In Q2, the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), the German Mick Schumacher (Haas), the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) were also eliminated.
The Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas) could not even access that round, who had taken pole for the Sao Paulo GP sprint race the previous weekend.
Along with Magnussen, the Frenchman Pierre Gasly was left out of Q2 in his farewell to Alpha Tauri, the Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), the Thai Alex Albon (Williams) and his teammate Nicholas Latifi, who has run out of seat for next season.
