McLaren boss denies favouritism as Norris on pole for Sao Paulo sprint, Piastri third

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown insisted he will allow his drivers to race fair and square to the finish as Oscar Piastri denied McLaren is sabotaging him.

Lando Norris used a win at the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago to reclaim the championship lead over Oscar Piastri for the first time in more than six months. But as the two battle each other for their first ever title, four-time defending champion Max Verstappen continues to chip into their lead.

Norris' win in Mexico City gave him a one-point advantage. There's no breathing room for the McLaren drivers, though, as Verstappen has cut a 104-point deficit from the end of August to only 36 points over the last five races.

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It's the closest he's been to the leaders since May, and with five events remaining, McLaren's refusal to designate either Norris or Piastri as its No.1 driver could very well allow Verstappen to win a fifth consecutive title.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told The Associated Press he absolutely will not choose one over the other.

"No chance," Brown told the AP. "We're racers."

Piastri echoed the overall message from the McLaren boss, telling reporters allegations the team favours one driver over the other, hold no weight.

"No, it's not the case. You know, I think the last couple of weekends have been a little bit more tricky, but we've got pretty clear answers on why that's the case," he said ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

"There's not really too many mysteries on what's kind of happened.

"I think there's some questions of kind of why some differences have cropped up in terms of how I need to drive and stuff like that, but there's, yeah, everything is explainable.

"So there's definitely none of that going on."

Norris was perfectly placed to extend his lead after taking pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint race with Piastri qualifying third.

Mercedes' Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli joined the Briton - who won last year's sprint while battling Red Bull's Max Verstappen - on the front row for Saturday's 100km race at Interlagos.

With four grands prix and two sprints, including Saturday, to come and Norris' first sprint pole of the campaign continued his growing momentum.

The sprint race offers eight points to the winner, with the top eight scoring.

"We did the job we needed to do, which was to be fastest today," said Norris.

"Trickier than Mexico. I've not been feeling quite as comfortable, but therefore it's a great result.

"It's meant to rain a lot in the morning, it's meant to be incredibly windy, so make sure everyone brings their rain jackets," he added.

Piastri's third place on the grid left the Australian looking more competitive and happier than he has sounded of late.

"We can definitely fight with what we've got, and there's obviously a lot more points on Sunday," said the Australian.

George Russell will line up fourth for Mercedes, at a track where he took his first win in 2022, with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso fifth after setting the fastest time in the second phase.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen qualified an unhappy sixth.

"The car is completely broken, it's just undriveable," said the Dutch driver, last year's grand prix winner from 17th on the grid but now 36 points behind Norris, over the radio after the second of the three phases.

Team boss Laurent Mekies sympathised: "Honestly, he's very unhappy with what the car does at the moment, so that's what you heard on the radio," he told Sky Sports television.

"When you cannot push the car to the limit the way you like, that's the sort of feedback you get. That's fair enough."

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton failed to reach the final top-10 shootout, qualifying 11th after running out of time to cross the line for a final flying lap in phase two (SQ2) and was called to the stewards afterwards for failing to slow for yellow flags.

"Yeah, every time mate," said the unhappy seven-times world champion over the radio after being told by race engineer Riccardo Adami that he was P11.

Teammate Charles Leclerc made it through, despite spinning at the end of that phase and triggering the double yellow flags that denied others the chance to go faster. He qualified eighth, behind Aston Martin's Lance Stroll.

Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar will line up ninth and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.

- with Reuters