Verstappen Faces Major Setback After Shocking São Paulo Qualifying

Yet things just got worse from there.

Despite the team making changes to Verstappen’s car between the Sprint and Qualifying, including adjusting the ride height, Verstappen found himself sliding around across the track and just could not put together a solid lap.

Despite the RB23 having great pace over the last few weeks–enough so to put Verstappen back in the Drivers’ Title fight–Interlagos has proven to be a perplexing weekend for the team, with that top tier form nowhere to be found. What’s worse, it seems like the issue isn’t obvious to either driver or team.

And it’s not like they aren’t trying. The Red Bull pit wall wanted to make things easier for Verstappen, with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, coming on the team radio to say, “Let us know if we can help you out with the tools.”

To which a despondent Verstappen replied, “I don’t really know what to tell you.”

In the end, Verstappen’s fastest time was good enough only for P16, marking his first Q1 elimination on pace alone since he joined Red Bull. In the past, starting this far back on the grid for him was a result of penalties, or poor timing with red flags. Meanwhile, Norris, who currently leads the Drivers' Championship, could not be further away, having scored yet another pole position for himself.

“This is a bit unexpected, I would say, after changing quite a bit on the car,” Verstappen said afterwards. “But yeah, I mean, it was just not responding. I had no grip out there, so I had to really passively underdrive it basically. It just didn’t work.

When asked if the team would consider any hail mary overnight changes, he said, “Not necessarily, but we’ll look at all of that tonight.”

Verstappen’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, was also eliminated in Q1, and will line up in P18 for the race.

The full São Paulo Grand Prix Qualifying Results can be found below:

Position	Driver Name	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:09.511
2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:09.685
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:09.805
4	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:09.886
5	Isack Hadjar	Visa Cash App RB	1:09.931
6	George Russell	Mercedes	1:09.942
7	Liam Lawson	Visa Cash App RB	1:09.962
8	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	1:09.977
9	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:10.002
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Stake F1 Team	1:10.039
11	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:10.001
12	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:10.053
13	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:10.100
14	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:10.161
15	Carlos Sainz	Williams	1:10.472
16	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:10.403
17	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	1:10.438
18	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	1:10.632
19	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull Racing	1:10.711
NC	Gabriel Bortoleto	Stake F1 Team	DNS