Sao Paulo Grand Prix: Lando Norris takes pole with Oscar Piastri fourth and Max Verstappen 16th

Norris had only one thing to do after locking his front brakes at the first corner on his first run into the shootout.

Piastri fell nine points behind Norris in the championship after taking third place in the sprint earlier in the day, but he finished his first lap fastest behind Leclerc.

But Norris looked for the man to beat all weekend long, and on his final run he put together an impressive lap under intense pressure, beating his teammate by 0.375 seconds.

Norris said: “I felt good. I was under a little bit of pressure because I locked up on my first lap and was a little more stressed than I would have liked, but I stayed calm and was very happy.” he said.

“Locked into turn one puts unnecessary pressure on me, but when I get into a good rhythm and can do everything together, I will be at the top.”,

Piastri said: “Of course I’m a little disappointed with the result, but the car looked fast this weekend, especially in the long run, so hopefully I can take advantage of that tomorrow.”

“Ultimately, I’ll try to take every opportunity that arises and if I can make progress and apply pressure, I’ll do that. But yeah, I need to get there first.”

Antonelli, who pushed Norris to the end in the sprint, became Mercedes’ leading driver throughout the weekend.

“I was a little angry because I was behind him again,” the 19-year-old said. “Again, we were very close behind him, it was very difficult to put the lap together with the wind. But we managed to have a good lap in the last lap and we are happy with that.”