A reminder of how the drivers' championship looks at we edge towards lights out.

Max Verstappen is 44 points clear of Lando Norris with 112 points available. The Red Bull driver will be in recover mode making his through the field, while the McLaren man has the Mercedes of George Russell for company on the front row.

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Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes was "undriveable" following his elimination in the first part of qualifying, however, the seven-time world champion has at least been given something to smile about today.

His demo run was cancelled yesterday because of the weather, but with a small window of dry running following today's fight for pole, Hamilton was given his "greatest honour" of driving Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna's title-winning 1990 McLaren.

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Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Leading edge of incoming area of light/moderate rain is currently about 15km north of the circuit. Circuit radar is atop a hotel 10km north of Interlagos; its coverage is incomplete in the zone where rain is emerging and prone to misinterpretation/tall building 'clutter'.

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One driver who mastered the wet conditions and will be starting away from the usual midfield pack is Yuki Tsunoda.

The RB driver was pipped to a front-row spot by the Mercedes of George Russell, but his lap time in Q3 was still good enough for a place on the second row - the highest qualifying position of his Formula 1 career.

Tsunoda will be sharing row two with the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, with his team-mate Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo after the Singapore Grand Prix in September, lining up in fourth place.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 Live

The pressure is very much on Lando Norris to win this race but also Max Verstappen has got to do something to save this weekend. This could be a critical time and this grand prix is going to be unmissable.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

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A review of the qualifying session suggests it did not make a difference to Max Verstappen.

He was lying 10th when Lance Stroll crashed, after a poor single lap following a restart after the red-flag period for Carlos Sainz's accident earlier in the session.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crossed the line to bump Verstappen down to 11th just two seconds later - well within the normal margin for a yellow flag to become a red after a heavy crash.

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The weekend in Brazil has been one to forget so far for reigning world championship Max Verstappen.

Lance Stroll's crash in the second part of qualifying was the tipping point for the Dutchman, who felt the later red flag for the stricken Aston Martin allowed other drivers to advance at his expense because the session was not restarted.

"The car hits the wall, it needs to be a straight red, I don't understand why it needs to take 30, 40 seconds for the red flag to come out," said Verstappen in an interview after his early knockout.

"It's so stupid to talk about. It's ridiculous."

With a five-place grid penalty already hanging over his head at Interlagos, his P12 is turned into 17th on the grid for the 71-lap race.

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Lando Norris survived the slippery conditions, waved red flags - and nearly getting dumped in Q1 - to put his McLaren on pole position for today's 71-lap race.

The McLaren driver was victorious in the sprint race yesterday, meaning he was able to chip away at Max Verstappen's title lead in the standings by three points. The Dutchman finished third on the road but was demoted to fourth place after being given a five-second time penalty.

With four races to go, including one more sprint event in Qatar, the gap between the pair is 44 points with 112 points left on the table.

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Grid box number seven will be empty as Alex Albon has withdrawn from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

There are a few drivers out of position, so the chance for a midfield car to secure a great result today is there for the taking.

With Max Verstappen's five-place grid penalty (he will start P17), the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Oliver Bearman in the Haas and Williams' Franco Colapinto have moved up the order.

Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Light, intermittent rain currently. However, forecasters for the FIA have warned teams of an increasing risk of moderate to periodically heavier rain arriving from the north from around 12:30 local... ie, race start.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

After changing Carlos Sainz's power unit and gearbox, Ferrari say the Spaniard will now start the race from the pit lane.

Alex Albon on X, external: Today is a tough one to swallow when qualifying was coming along nicely. We don’t know what caused the crash but we’ll look into it, I feel for everyone in the garage, this was a race where anything could happen and I felt we could have done something great.

Alex Albon said after the session he didn't feel confident his car would be ready on time, and now Williams have now confirmed the 28-year-old is officially out of the grand prix.

In a statement, the team said after assessing the damage following his Q3 crash, the damage was too extensive to repair in the short window of time between qualifying and the race.

Albon's team-mate Franco Colapinto, who also crashed, is ready to take part and will line up in P18.

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Hello again, folks. There was an early alarm call for Sunday's rescheduled qualifying before we go racing proper in Sao Paulo, but with the rain still wreaking havoc at Interlagos, the session was a chaotic mess with five red flags.

Williams and Aston Martin watched on as both drivers in each teams crashed out, along with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. How many will make the gird? We're still not entirely sure.

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Lights out for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix are at 15:30 GMT.

Commentary will be on 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds, at the top of this page using the 'listen live' tab and via most smart speakers. Just ask BBC Sounds to play Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

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Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

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McLaren’s Lando Norris took pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in a chaotic, crash-strewn qualifying session in which Max Verstappen was 12th.

The Red Bull driver has a five-place grid penalty for the grand prix later on Sunday so will start 17th, although he may vault up if some of the damaged cars cannot start the race.

Mercedes driver George Russell snatched second place alongside Norris, with the RB of Yuki Tsunoda third, ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and RB’s Liam Lawson.

The session was punctuated by five red flags for heavy crashes involving, in order, Williams’ Franco Colapinto, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, both Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, and Williams’ Alex Albon.

Read the full report here

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My word. That was a lot to take in for a Sunday morning.

How many cars will actually take part in the race? Well, we might have lost a Williams, as according to Alex Albon when he was speaking to media after qualifying, he says there's 'no way' his car will be ready in time.

In terms of the championship, Lando Norris has taken the best seat in the house, but Max Verstappen is way out of position in P17 once his grid penalty is applied. But that could change with the number of cars that need repairing.

Let's take a break now and then come back together at 15:00 GMT for build-up.

See you shortly!

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Yuki Tsunoda put his RB in third, the best start of his career, and he said afterwards: “It was very tricky I certainly enjoyed it, I think we had good pace straight away. There were a few mistakes but there was a bit of luck as well, overall as a team including Liam as well, we did a really good job.”

On the risks of qualifying in those conditions, he added: “Yeah I mean this track especially it’s probably one of the trickiest tracks, but once you start building some confidence and try and over push a little bit you have a massive consequence like we saw with several cars today.

“I had a big moment but luckily I was away from the barrier, but I feel much better than yesterday, the car feels good, I think we had good pace in the rain as well so it’s a good place to start for today.”

On both RB’s starting high up on the grid, he said: “We are slightly behind, especially Haas in P6 so we need to catch up and these are the moments that we want to maximise the opportunity, as a team we will do as much as we can to score as much as possible.”

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George Russell who qualified second in Brazil: "Absolutely always love coming to Sau Paulo, obviously such great memories from a few years ago. after yesterday it was so tough, just waiting and all the fans stayed out.

"I was so impressed coming into the track at 6AM, everybody was queuing, everybody wanted to be here. really pleased with P2.

On starting race day earlier: "I loved it reminded me of the karting days, waking up, having breakfast in your race suit and just going out there and driving. So maybe the guys should have to think about the format going forward, maybe this is the one, qualifying Sunday morning. As I said a great session but let's see what we can do for the race."

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Lando Norris put his McLaren on pole, he said: “There was a lot going on today but I’m super super happy, I was struggling a lot at the beginning of qualifying, I had a lot of work to do. I was not comfortable at all so to end up on pole, I worked at it a lot in qualifying and a lot of areas I needed to improve on but I did exactly that.

“I’m a little surprised again, I’ve been a little surprised a little bit lately but a little surprised to be on pole. There were some nice laps and I felt good in the end and a good result for us.”

On judging the changing conditions, he added: “It’s very [tricky to judge], probably more than it looks on TV at times, you’re always trying to find that next little bit. You saw how many people were going off and crashing and locking up, it was easy to end up badly and end up in a wall or do something where you might not even make the race later today.

“The risk reward was not easy today, especially where I was in Q1, I found it very tough to know how much more I can push, so that’s why I’m happy because it’s a relieving qualifying after something like this.”

On the race ahead, he said: “It’s eyes forward, I’ve got some great guys behind George put in a nice lap, Yuki has been flying in the wet all day today. It’s never easy in these conditions, it’s never just settling down and getting on with it.

"We will prepare well, hopefully we can get a race in, that would be a good start and we will see what we can do.”

Any questions you may have after that chaotic qualifying session, especially about the timing of red flags, send them through to Andrew Benson using the link here

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