Oscar Piastri to start third as teammate Lando Norris claims sprint pole in São Paulo

Lando Norris has continued his strong late-season form by securing pole position for the sprint race at the São Paulo Grand Prix, edging out both Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

Fresh off his dominant victory in Mexico City, Norris carried his momentum into Interlagos, clocking the two fastest laps in Saturday's sprint qualifying session (AEDT). The Briton narrowly beat Antonelli by 0.097 seconds, while Piastri finished just 0.185 seconds off the pace to line up third on the grid.

The result strengthens Norris's position in the championship battle, where he leads Piastri by a single point with four rounds remaining.

"We did the job we needed to do - to be fastest today," Norris said after securing pole.

Piastri, meanwhile, said he was mostly pleased with his performance despite some difficulties during his final run.

"The soft tyre behaved a bit differently than I expected," the Australian explained. "I had a couple of big moments on my first lap, which wasn't ideal, but overall I felt much happier today than in the last few weeks. Practice went very well, and although we made some changes for qualifying that took a bit of getting used to, I'm pretty happy."

Defending champion Max Verstappen could manage only sixth in his Red Bull but remains mathematically in title contention - 36 points behind Norris.

The sprint race will take place on Sunday morning (AEDT), followed later in the day by qualifying for the main São Paulo Grand Prix, scheduled for Monday (AEDT).