The Latest Breaking News from Fernando Alonso

Max Verstappen of Red Bull won pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix after heavy rain cut qualifying short. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will start in second, followed by two Aston Martins. Sérgio Perez, fighting for runner-up in the drivers' championship, will start in ninth.

The Aston Martin driver was unable to take part in the second part of the shootout that determines the grid for the shortened Saturday race after sustaining heavy damage to the front-left corner.

Despite a first sector that was over two-tenths slower than the best efforts from the Red Bulls, Norris found time over the rest of the lap to clinch pole position for Saturday's shortened race - albeit with some evident bemusement after feeling that his lap was not particularly special.

Those events saw three out of four starts made from the pitlane as the team tried to learn more about the update package it debuted at Circuit of the Americas. And just to make life even tougher, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from both races with floor damage.

Those events saw three out of four starts made from the pitlane as the team tried to learn more about the update package it debuted at Circuit of the Americas. And just to make life even tougher, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from both races with floor damage.

The final stage of qualifying for Sunday's race in Sao Paulo began with rainfall expected to emerge partway through the session, as dark clouds rolled over the circuit.

The final stage of qualifying for Sunday's race in Sao Paulo began with rainfall expected to emerge partway through the session, as dark clouds rolled over the circuit.

F1 has turned its sprint race into a standalone Saturday event, with sprint qualifying deciding the starting grid followed by the sprint race later in the day. Here’s how the latest sprint race format changes will work.During qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix, Max Verstappen grabbed pole position ahead of Charles…

The world champion made the most of his single Q3 lap before a deluge at Interlagos with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc joining him at the front of the grid

Verstappen will start ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

The Sao Paulo skyline became increasingly heavy as dark clouds drew over the Interlagos circuit, prompting an early queue for laps as rain looked to be imminent in the opening phase of the session.