2025 Brazil GP Sprint Qualifying

Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2025 Brazil GP sprint qualifying preview. You can read his outright preview by clicking here.

2025 Brazil GP Sprint Shootout

The one and only free practice session of this Sprint Race weekend told us a few things but left many more questions.

It was the two McLarens in first and second place. Piastri was the faster of the two, quite comfortably, before Norris went 0.023s faster on his last flying lap. It was a straightforward session for McLaren. They ran the hard tyre in the first 50 minutes before putting on the mediums for the performance runs at the end. They ended up over 0.6 seconds clear of the next best car which was…..Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber. That is where the session left us hanging.

Strange Result

We would normally expect to see Verstappen, or maybe the Ferrari’s or Russell to be up there, but Russell was the closest of that lot and he was only 6th and 0.670s off Norris’ time. Russell had been fastest on the hard tyre but he never really strung a lap together on the mediums. I would say there is more pace in the Mercedes.

The Red Bulls didn’t look great. We have two ante-post bets on Tsunoda and the one thing he couldn’t do was to crash in the only free practice session, and of course that is exactly what he did. He missed some 35 minutes of track time and only ran on the soft tyre when he did get going. He lost it on the kerb in turn four and a few laps later, Verstappen had a moment at exactly the same place. It seemed like the car was bottoming out too easily.

Setup Changes

Verstappen tried some setup changes and did come out on the softs, but aborted that lap and went back to used hards. He set no representative time on the softs and didn’t run a medium. We learned very little about his potential.

Ferrari also only ran on the hard tyres, one set on both cars for the whole session. We learned very little about their potential.

We ended up with the McLarens where we could expect them to be, but Verstappen was 17th, Tsunoda 20th. Leclerc was 18th, Hamilton 19th.

The questions are, a) Can anyone mix it with the McLaren and b) If so, who?

The teams have a few hours to refine their set ups before they get locked in for the Sprint qualifying and Sprint race. I have to expect that the usual suspects will move up the leaderboard, but catching the McLarens? They did seem to be quick from the off and they too can refine things and be faster still.

Oscar Or Lando?

Which McLaren driver will be the quicker of the two? Their qualifying H2H record in 2025 is 10-10. Norris has been the quicker in four of the last five GP qualifying sessions. Piastri has been the faster in three of the four Sprint qualifying sessions in 2025.

In the last two years here, we have had four qualifying sessions between the sprints and GPs. Norris has had two poles, Piastri one and in terms of H2Hs, Norris is 3-1.

Looking at both drivers’ individual sector times, Piastri’s ‘ideal’ lap time was +0.168 seconds faster than Norris’ ideal lap. He was faster right up to Norris’ last lap, and indeed his last final sector.

It does look like a bit of a toss-up between the two, unless the other possible contenders can find a better setup and then nail a lap. Verstappen is a possible but he didn’t show his hand. He is usually thereabouts and has been first or second in three of the four Sprint qualifiers in 2025. Piastri has been top three in all of them and fastest once. Norris is yet to have a sprint pole in 2025.

2025 Brazil GP sprint qualifying Tip: 1 point Oscar Piastri to be the fastest Sprint qualifier @ 3.50 with Ladbrokes

There is one match bet which looks worth backing. I do not expect Hulkenberg to remain as high as the 3rd place he was in FP1. but in the last sprint event in Texas, Hulkenberg was second fastest in FP1 and fourth in Sprint qualifying. He has been much improved in qualifying in recent races beating Bortoleto in the last four and in the US GP sprint qualifying.

2025 Brazil GP sprint qualifying Tip: 1 point Nico Hulkenberg to out qualify Gabriel Bortoleto @ 1.74 with Livescorebet

-JamesPunt