F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix 2023 - Qualifying: As it happened

He's driving back into the pit lane slowly. A rear puncture for the Spaniard.

He splits the two Mercedes drivers to put his Haas fifth-fastest.

Hamilton moves into third, 0.3s off Verstappen's pace.

Russell makes it a 3-4 for Mercedes, although he's 0.6s slower than Verstappen.

He's within a tenth of Verstappen at the top of the timesheets.

Perez is in need of a big result after failing to make it past the opening lap at his home race last time out.

Verstappen, Perez, Alonso, Leclerc, Norris, Hulkenberg, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Gasly and Stroll.

A 1m13.855s for Alonso, 0.7s off the pace. 

A 1m13.138s for the three-time world champion, which puts him 0.3s ahead of Perez, who has just improved.

The two Ferrari drivers set their first times of the day.

Leclerc into second behind Verstappen, just 0.2s off the pace.

All of the early running is being done on the white-marked hard tyre.

No surprise, it's Verstappen on top with a 1m13.950s, 1.0s ahead of Perez at this early stage.

Alonso and Hamilton complete the top four, 1.1s down on the lead Red Bull.

A truly special place to go racing #F1#BrazilGPpic.twitter.com/m1fWwmdB5G

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 3, 2023

First practice at Interlagos is moments away from starting.

There is just one 60-minute session ahead of qualifying this afternoon.

This morning, F1 announced that the Sao Paulo Grand Prix has signed a new contract for the Interlagos race to remain on the calendar until at least 2030. 

"I am delighted to announce we will be staying at Interlagos until 2030, and I can’t wait for many more years of the wonderful atmosphere that the Brazilian fans bring," said F1 president Stefano Domenicali.

"Brazil has such a rich racing heritage, and this iconic circuit is a favourite of drivers and fans around the world. It embodies everything that is great about racing, and we look forward to seeing how it develops over the years to come to create an even better experience."

First up, we have the matter of an important hour of practice. 

It'll be the only running the teams get to find a set-up they are happy with for the rest of the weekend before the cars enter parc ferme conditions when qualifying gets underway. 

The sprint format was partly blamed on Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc's disqualifications at the United States Grand Prix. 

Could we see a repeat in Brazil? George Russell has admitted to having concerns.

“It’s going to be really challenging,” Russell said on Thursday. “And this is a big, big issue with the sprint race weekends because, as we said in Austin, we ended practice, we did our checks and there was no plank wear and we thought we were in the clear.

"And then with a small change of wind direction, putting in 100 kilos of fuel in the car for the first time, some laps in traffic, some laps not in traffic on a really bumpy circuit, we suddenly found ourselves in an issue we weren’t expecting.

“I’ve got to be honest, on a track like this some teams might find themselves in the same place, So that’s just part of a game in a sprint race.”

It's the sixth and final sprint weekend of 2023, with qualifying setting the grid for Sunday's grand prix later today. 

We'll have one eye on the weather with storms forecast to hit Interlagos today. Could we end up getting an upset later on?

Let's not forget that Kevin Magnussen claimed a shock maiden pole position for Haas here last year.