Sebastian and Lance will start Saturday's Sprint race from outside of the top 10 after a topsy-turvy damp qualifying session.
Both Lance and Sebastian got plenty of data all three Pirelli tyre compounds in the sole practice session before qualifying.
Rain prior to the three-part session meant that the first segment was held in drying conditions, but the rain arrived again during Q2 where both Sebastian and Lance fell out of contention.
Sebastian
Sebastian got his first timed laps of the day in on the Hard compound at the start of FP1 and put in a 1.14.953 on a 10-lap run in the early stages of the session.
He switched to the Medium tyres and put in eight laps on that compound with a best time of 1.13.255.
In the closing stages, Sebastian did a performance run on Soft tyres ahead of qualifying. He put in his fastest lap of the session – a 1.12.157 – to go seventh fastest overall with 30 laps on the board.
F1's third and final Sprint of 2022
The historical Autódromo José Carlos Pace hosts the penultimate round of the 2022 Formula One season and is a fitting locale for the third and final Sprint weekend of the campaign.
Sebastian started qualifying on a new set of Intermediate tyres and worked his way to a 1.19.029 before it became clear that the circuit was too dry for those tyres.
He switched to Soft tyres with six minutes to go, and put in a lap time of 1.13.597 to go fourth fastest and safely get through into Q2.
In Q2, Sebastian went out on a new set of Soft tyres. His best time on that set was a 1.11.916 before he pitted for another fresh set.
The rain however started to set in as the segment drew to a close.
While he did improve to a 1.11.678 despite rain in the final sector, it was not quite enough to make it into the top 10 shootout.
Sebastian will line up 13th for Saturday's Sprint.
"I always like these conditions. It was slippery out there, and very tricky to correctly judge the weather.
"We missed out on getting through to Q3 by a tenth – maybe even a bit less – which makes you think about where you could have made up that time.
"But, to be honest, I was pretty happy with the lap – then it started to drizzle, so maybe the timing was not ideal.
"It is a shame because I thought we could have got through today. There is lots to play for tomorrow and on Sunday."
Lance
Lance started his Friday in FP1 with an eight-lap run on the Hard tyres. He put in a best time of 1.15.300 before he switched to the Medium tyres.
On that compound, he put in a 1.13.563 before returning to the garage for some set-up tweaks.
Swapping to the Soft tyres for the end of the running, Lance gradually improved his time to a 1.12.759 to go 14th fastest with 26 laps completed before qualifying.
Lance started Q1 with a fresh set of Intermediate tyres. He put in a best time of 1.18.965 before the track dried up enough to switch to dry tyres.
With his new tyres, he crossed the finish line with two seconds to spare to put in one final lap. His time was a 1.14.398, which was good enough for 10th fastest, making it into Q2.
Lance started Q2 on another set of new Soft tyres and put in a best time of 1.12.210 on them.
As the conditions started to worsen, Lance switched to another set of Soft tyres but was unable to improve on his best time despite setting a personal best first and second sector.
He finished the session in 15th, from where he is set to start the Sprint.
"It was a difficult session all around today. I do not think we had the pace in qualifying, so we need to look into why that was.
"We will see what we can do tomorrow in the Sprint and again in the Grand Prix on Sunday.
"The weather is expected to be a bit up and down all weekend, so there should be plenty of opportunities to make some overtakes and pick up some points."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"The unpredictable weather made for a challenging qualifying session today. A damp but drying track in Q1 forced everyone to run for pretty much the whole session as the surface was constantly improving.
"We timed the switch to dry tyres well and both Lance and Sebastian progressed. For the start of Q2 the track remained mostly dry, but some light rain returned in the final part of the session and prevented us from improving our times.
"There is plenty to play for tomorrow in the Sprint and we will work hard to make some progress ahead of Sunday's race."
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