Lando Norris might already have claimed a maiden pole position in 2021, but adding a second to his tally is proving frustrating for the 23-year-old McLaren driver who felt he'd missed a massive opportunity to do so in Brazil.
Norris had been fastest of anyone in the second round of qualifying, beating Red Bull driver Max Verstappen to the top spot in Q2 by an impressive 0.141s.
But when it came to the all-important final round which set the top ten places on the grid for Sunday's Sao Paulo GP, he fell foul of a sudden change of weather that effectively ruined his one flying lap run.
An abrupt storm front swept over the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos, Brazil just as the ten cars were making their runs. The top six on track just about scraped home albeit much slower that the times in Q2 in the deteriorating conditions.
But the last four runners on track - including Norris and his team mate Oscar Piastri - suffered badly and as a result Norris finished P7, over a second behind pole winner Verstappen.
Piastri suffered even worse as the conditions saw him run onto the grass at Juncao. He failed to set a time, meaning he still start the race from P10. Neither had the chance to make a second run amid the heavy rain, thunder and lightning that ensured causing a red flag to end the session.
Norris said that that it was particularly disappointing to miss out when the MCL60 had felt so good all day - strong enough potentially to vie for pole position.
"The car was amazing," he told the media sheltering in the paddock afterward. "It was quick enough to be quickest today and on pole, so I'm pretty gutted [to end up] the way we did.
"I don't know what to feel about it, I think the car was amazing," he continued. "It came alive a lot in qualifying and was easily good enough to be quickest, let's say.
"But delivering the lap, and putting it together in Q3, everything's a different job," he conceded. "Easily quick enough, so disappointed. Another disappointing [Friday], not a lot else we could have done."
Like many of the drivers, Piastri had been astonished by the way that the level of grip on the circuit had simply disappeared in the interval between sessions as the storm front approached.
"I just lost a lot of grip," the Australian rookie said. "I don't know if it was already raining or what, but I was struggling a lot already on the lap. I think everyone was.
"I just went in how I did the last lap and just slid straight off, so it's a shame - the pace of the car was looking good. But we'll try again tomorrow."
Saturday will see the Sprint Showdown, the qualifying session setting the starting grid order for the Sprint race later in the day. Piastri is hoping for less stormy weather and a pinch of luck.
"It's been a good day in terms of pace," Piastri said. "Obviously this weather's thrown a spanner in the works, so we just need to look at what went wrong."
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