Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were fourth and 11th fastest respectively in qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Both Scuderia Ferrari HP drivers will however start tomorrow's race further down the order because of power unit penalties. Charles has a ten-place grid penalty following the replacement of the internal combustion engine on his SF-26, while Lewis will start from the back of the grid in twentieth position after the team replaced his entire power unit. With his starting place already determined, Hamilton's qualifying programme was limited to Q1 and a single run in Q2.

At the start of Q1, conditions were extremely wet and the session was red flagged almost immediately. Qualifying resumed around 80 minutes later, with all cars running on Extreme Wet tyres. The Ferraris progressed to Q2 where both drivers initially ran on the same set of Extreme Wets. Charles posted a 1'29"795, while Lewis completed his only run of the session in 1'30"001, which put him 11th. Leclerc then switched to Intermediates and improved to 1'28"082 to progress to Q3. In the final phase, Charles went out on a fresh set of Intermediates and stayed out for several laps. His best time of 1'28"289 was good enough for fourth. With around seven minutes remaining, the rain intensified and all the cars returned to the pits, with no further improvements possible.

The São Paulo Grand Prix gets underway tomorrow at 14.00 local time (18.00 CET), run for 71 laps, for a distance of 305.879 kilometres. With more unsettled weather forecast, the race could prove particularly unpredictable. Starting from further down the order, Charles and Lewis will look to make the most of any opportunities that changing conditions and the various strategy options may provide.

Charles Leclerc: It was a really interesting qualifying for us, even if we are not fully satisfied with the position we finished in. Knowing that we would take a 10-place grid penalty, we were willing to be more experimental and try various things with the car in these conditions. We learned a huge amount today, and I think these learnings will be something to capitalise on tomorrow and take with us going forward.

Starting from P14, we will do everything to fight our way forward, and with rain predicted, let's see what's in the cards for us in a hopefully exciting race.

Lewis Hamilton: It was fun to drive in the rain today and the car felt good, especially in Q1. I always enjoy these conditions and it felt great to be out there having some close battles. It's a shame for the penalty because I think we had a car that could have fought further up the order, but tomorrow is a new day and today the team did plenty of work getting me to the track in qualifying after what happened in FP3. Starting from the back tomorrow will make things difficult, but hopefully we'll have similar conditions and plenty of opportunities. We'll make sure everything is in the right place with the car and I'll give it everything to make my way forward, do the best job I can for the team and enjoy the race.

Fred Vasseur: It was a very long qualifying session, but I think the Race Director handled it in the right way, as at times the conditions were truly extreme. The positive aspect on our side is that we were competitive in the wet from the very start. We knew we would have to take a penalty before the end of the season and, also taking the weather forecast into account, we decided to take it here with both drivers, because Interlagos is a track where we believe it is possible to move up the order. Therefore, so far, we have approached the weekend with the race very much in mind, including in terms of tyre management. Tomorrow will certainly be a challenge, but there will also be plenty of opportunities, particularly if the weather remains unpredictable, which looks likely. We have seen in the past that it is possible to make up a lot of places here when starting from the back. We will have to be ready to seize every opportunity.