Max Verstappen was presented with his pole position award by football legend Adriano ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The Dutchman was the fastest during qualifying during a stormy session at Interlagos to claim his 11th pole of the campaign. It wasn’t all so straight-forward for Verstappen though. He finished second in both Q1 and Q2, behind George Russell and then Lando Norris respectively, but secured the best time in Q3 to secure pole for Sunday’s race. He was then presented his award by a familiar face. Former Brazil striker Adriano was full of smiles while handing the Red Bull star with his award in the shape of a tyre. The now 41-year-old certainly looked different to his athletic peak, with greying hair and beard on show. While the former forward looked slightly different to his prime, Adriano still made sure to hark back to his playing days by sporting Inter Milan’s current home shirt. He made 177 appearances for the Italian giants, scoring 74 goals and winning two league titles. Adriano also represented Flamengo, Parma, Fiorentina, Roma and the Brazilian national team before retiring in 2016. Adriano’s Inter shirt wasn’t the only football attire on show during qualification. Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton arrived sporting a particularly striking 90’s Brazil tracksuit made by Umbro. He is aiming to overtake Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in the season’s standings.
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Speaking after securing pole, Verstappen said: “Charles [Leclerc] and I were just discussing – our laps, they felt terrible! But I don’t know, the wind started to change and started to be very strong, and we lost a lot of lap time because of it, but it was all quite hectic in the last lap.
“We had to do [a lot of laps] because the gaps were very, very small and then of course in Q3, you could see the weather incoming and it looked really bad… But luckily we completed the lap in the best way possible, but there was no grip out there, because the wind was changing a lot. Of course, happy to be on pole.”
Away from qualifying, there were worrying scenes away from the track in Sao Paulo after a heavy storm battered the circuit, leading to the roof being ripped off the grandstand. Videos on social media showed strong wind tearing through the grandstands.
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Officials are yet to comment on the scenes. Fortunately, it appears spectators only suffered minor injuries during the scenes. Damage to the grandstand will be assessed by the race promoter on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix.
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