F1 Sao Paulo GP Chaos As Grandstand Collapses On Terrified Fans

There was a bizarre end to Friday afternoon's Qualifying session at the Interlagos Circuit in Brazil for this weekend's Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The session was stopped with over four minutes remaining in Q3 as the venue was blanketed by an eerie darkness. Later, as an intense storm pelted the venue, one of the grandstands had its roof torn off and it later collapsed onto the seats. Luckily, no one was reported to have been injured.

The scenes were quite terrifying as F1 fans waited in their seats for the rain to let up so that they could leave the venue. The Qualifying session was affected tremendously as a sudden cloud cover dropped the track temperature in the middle of the session. Then, as Q3 was underway, a dark, ominous cloud suddenly engulfed the entire area, blanketing the circuit in darkness.

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso told his team over the radio that it had turned into night, and his engineers agreed. Charles Leclerc was also stunned by how dark everything had become in a matter of minutes. Only a few drops of rain caused some drivers to go off the track, prompting everyone to return to the pits.

Stewards eventually decided to bring out the red flag, and it was decided that the session would not be restarted when the heavens opened up. At that point, Verstappen claimed pole, followed by Leclerc and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

However, the drama did not end there, as most of the people at the circuit were pelted by the heavy rain. Videos from the venue showed fans wearing only flimsy ponchos as they tried to ride out the heavy rainfall and strong winds.

Those who were sitting under a roof in the covered sections of the stands appeared to be slightly more comfortable that those in the open seating areas, but things suddenly took a terrifying turn when the roofing was ripped away by the wind. The incident took place at the Porto Seguro Grandstand near the final corner, while fans were still sitting around hoping to leave when the rain let up.

The roofing could be seen flying off and people immediately got off their seats to find a safer location. They could not have moved away fast enough as more photos and videos later showed how the roof eventually collapsed on top of the seats.

Pictures from F1 photographer Andy Hone showed the collapsed grandstand, and he confirmed that the whole thing took place within just ten minutes. He was one of those lucky enough to have gotten out of the way before the roofing eventually gave way and fell on the seating area. He even claimed that he was "nearly decapitated by falling debris".

Winds at the circuit are reported to have reached almost 65mph. Drivers were seen running between garages to and from Parc Ferme, and the teams were told that they could close their garage doors to protect the sensitive equipment from the torrential rain.

Pole sitter Verstappen described the situation as "insane weather", with Leclerc saying that everything felt "very weird".

The biggest losers of the session were McLaren drivers Lando Norrisand Oscar Piastri, who had been clocking in some of the fastest times during the weekend's practice sessions. Unfortunately, they could not put in serious laps in Q3, leaving them in P6 and P10 respectively.

George Russell was also stunned by what happened in the final moments of the session. He said: "It was absolutely crazy. I have never seen a change in weather as drastic as that."

It is unclear what the event organisers will do about the damaged grandstand, as the events for Saturday are expected to push through as scheduled. There will be a Sprint Shootout before the Sprint Race, and spectators have already purchased seats until Sunday's main race.

Hundreds of seats will likely be rendered unusable unless Interlagos management managed to pull off a miracle overnight. It is expected that safety will be a priority and it remains to be seen how the situation will be managed in the case of the affected fans who may have been left with no seats.