Kevin Magnussen caused a sensation at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix by qualifying his Haas car on pole position for Saturday’s sprint race.
The Dane, who returned to Formula 1 this season after a one-year hiatus, took his and his team’s first pole with a remarkable performance at Interlagos.
Magnussen nailed the only dry lap before a red flag, during which rain started to fall.
He will start Saturday’s sprint race ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Mercedes’ George Russell was third, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton in eighth.
And there was embarrassment for Ferrari, who made the latest in a series of strategy blunders this season by sending Charles Leclerc out on intermediate tyres for the start of the final session.
Ferrari allowed themselves to be tricked by the weather forecast that predicted rain, but it did not come soon enough, and there were recriminations over the radio as Leclerc realised everyone else had managed to do a lap and he would be starting 10th.
Magnussen was disbelieving, grinning ear to ear in the car as it became apparent the weather was too wet for anyone to improve once the session resumed, and then jumping out of the car and celebrating with his team afterwards.
How did that happen?
It was a stunning performance from Magnussen, in what has been the second slowest car in the field this season, and one that will go down as one of the biggest shocks in F1 history.
Haas got him out on track first, so he had a clear lap, and he just nailed the lap and ended up 0.207 seconds faster than two-time champion Verstappen, who admitted he had ruined his own chances by locking up at Turn Eight.
Before he had returned to the pits, he asked the team where he was. When he was told: “P1”, he replied: “You’re kidding me. I’ve never felt this way in my life.”
He then cautioned the team not to celebrate too soon, but when the rain came down during the break, his pole was set in concrete.
“I don’t know what to say,” Magnussen said afterwards. “The team put me out on track at exactly the right moment. We were the first out in the pit lane and did a pretty decent lap and we’re on pole. lt’s incredible.”
Magnussen thanked the Haas team, who brought him back this year and gave him a chance to revive his career after dropping him at the end of 2020 when they jettisoned Russian Nikita Mazepin following the invasion of Ukraine.
“Thank you to the team, to (owner) Gene Haas, Gunther (Steiner, the team principal),” he said, “for taking me back and giving me the opportunity to have a day like this. I am so chuffed.”
What else happened?
It was Russell who caused the red flag that defined the session – he lost control at Turn Four trying a second lap, getting his outside wheels on the white line and spinning into the gravel trap.
He looked like he would be able to get out, as he reached the asphalt escape road between the gravel and barrier, but he spun the Mercedes when he got there, and became beached.
Russell said: “Happy to be P3 and massive congrats to Kevin – what an awesome job he did and Haas. P3 is not necessarily where we wanted to be but a very good place to be starting the sprint race.
“Our best shot of trying to get ahead of Max is to have some mixed conditions.”
McLaren’s Lando Norris will start fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, followed by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who was stuck behind Leclerc on his lap.
More Ferrari dismay
Ferrari, meanwhile, found themselves with more questions to ask about their race management after scuppering Leclerc’s chances.
They had already had one misunderstanding earlier in practice, when they fumbled a tyre change in the pit lane when changing from intermediate tyres to slicks during the first qualifying session, and Leclerc was left asking what was going on as his car sat without wheels with Sainz waiting behind for his tyres.
But that was nothing compared to what happened in Q3.
The fundamental part of any tyre choice is to be on the right ones at the right time, but Ferrari got ahead of themselves and gambled on sending Leclerc out on intermediates when the incoming rain had not started.
“Am I the only one on inters,” Leclerc asked as he left the pits.
Further around the lap, he said: “There’s no rain,” but was told: “Rain at Turn 12, we believe.”
His engineer then made a frantic call to try to get him to pit, shouting: “Box, box, box,” over the radio as he completed the out lap.
But Leclerc, realising that rain was arriving and that this may well be his fastest lap of the session even on the wrong tyres, rebuffed them. “Guys, I need to push now,” he said.
Afterwards, when asked where he was, he replied sarcastically: “Nice. Beautiful.” And then shouted a swear word, frustrated to be starting a race for which he should at least have been on the front row down in 10th.
“We were expecting some rain which never came,” he said once out of the car. “I will speak with the team and try to understand what we can do better in those conditions. Extremely disappointed. The pace was there, but whatever.”
Hamilton was also disappointed with his grid position, saying that he was at the back of the queue in the pits, felt his tyres had lost temperature and that he also caught the start of the rain on his lap.
Qualifying sets the grid for the sprint race, which starts at 19:30 GMT UK time on Saturday. The result of that decides starting positions for the main grand prix at 18:00 UK time on Sunday.