Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying is POSTPONED resulting from torrential rain and lightning in Sao Paulo – with extreme climate affecting Sunday’s race time

Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix was cancelled on Saturday afternoon due to extreme weather conditions around the track in Brazil.

Lando Norris is hoping to close the gap to Max Verstappen even further after he finished second last weekend in Mexico, while Verstappen was resigned to sixth on the back of two penalties in the race.

He benefitted from winning the sprint race earlier in the day ahead of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, with Verstappen fourth on the back of another penalty for speeding under the virtual safety car.

But the weather worsened as the day went on with lightening also present, and light was also lost despite the best efforts of officials to clean the track and get it ready for qualifying at Interlagos.

Shortly afterwards the governing body, the FIA, confirmed the rescheduled timings – with qualifying set to take place at 10:30am on Sunday and the Grand Prix to be held at 3:30pm.

Qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix was postponed due to adverse weather conditions

Staff and teams were left sweeping the rain to try and get the track ready for competition

Lando Norris (left) and Max Vertappen (right) are competing for the drivers championship

Ferrari team principle Fred Vasseur told Sky Italy when the weather hit: ‘I think that we have to wake up quite early tomorrow morning for the quali. 

‘It’s heavy rain and I don’t know about the tarmac and if it’s raining properly, but we already have some lakes in some corners, it will be difficult.’

Norris currently trails Verstappen by 44 points, but needs to close the gap at a rapid pace with just four races left in the season.

He does seem to have the better car currently, but the hard work was done by Verstappen earlier in the season when he won seven races, with Norris winning just three so far in comparison.

The Brit could have built on the momentum from the sprint race soon after with qualifying, but the rain and lightening didn’t allow that to happen.

The qualifying session had been repeatedly put back during the day, with the hope that enough work could be done to get the session underway.

A number of videos were shared on social media of the weather conditions, which proved too extreme for competition. 

The qualifying session had been repeatedly put back during the day until it was called off

Qualifying is now scheduled to take place at 9am local time, though heavy rain is also scheduled for Sunday and could have a huge impact on the race.

Just before 5pm local time, FIA race director Niels Wittich made the call to postpone the session with the hope that conditions on Sunday would be better.

The race is still set to start at 5pm GMT – 2pm local time – on Sunday.