Sao Paulo GP
An eventful Brazilian GP weekend brought a dramatic turnaround in the 2025 F1 World Championship battle as a brilliant performance from Lando Norris saw the McLaren driver surge into a healthy lead in the points standings.
Having dominated the Mexico City race, and put himself a point clear of team mate Oscar Piastri, Norris was again on superb form in Brazil. He took pole and won the Saturday sprint, overcoming pressure from rookie Kimi Antonelli. He then topped all three sessions in main qualifying to secure pole for the GP itself, before going on to log another winning performance.
The Briton has put his struggles earlier this year behind him and is on brilliant form, and the 24-point advantage he now has over Piastri gives him a little breathing space heading to Las Vegas.
It was another difficult weekend for the Australian. He was running third in the sprint when he crashed out, having hit a puddle of water dislodged from a kerb by Norris up ahead. Only fourth on the grid for the main event, he picked up a 10-second penalty for hitting Kimi Antonelli.
That left him in fifth place at the flag for the second race in a row, having lost 38 points to Norris over just two weekends. He’s not out of it yet, but at the very least he has to beat Norris in Vegas to stay in real contention.
It was a weekend of mixed emotions for Verstappen. Unhappy with his car after Red Bull failed to find the setup sweet spot, he managed only fourth in the sprint. Changes made the car worse for main qualifying, and he was a disastrous P16.
The team then took a punt and took him out of parc ferme to make more changes, which consigned him to a pitlane start. From then he did a brilliant job to briefly get into the lead, before eventually claiming third.
He clearly had the pace to challenge for victory, had he started from a representative grid position, so all is not lost. But while he gained a few points on Piastri, Norris is now 49 points clear, and Verstappen’s chances rely entirely on the McLaren man hitting trouble and failing to score.
Brazil was the best weekend to date for Mercedes rookie Antonelli, who started and finished second in both the sprint and the GP, outpacing team mate George Russell all weekend. Interlagos was a track that the young Italian didn’t know from F2 or F1 testing, making it all the more impressive, and this was a genuine sign that he really is the special talent that his team believes him to be.
For Ferrari, the other team battling Red Bull and Mercedes for second in the constructors’ battle, it was a frustrating weekend. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and seventh in the sprint, and then had mixed fortunes in main qualifying as they took third and 13th.
Hamilton had a nightmare race, suffering damage from contact with Carlos Sainz and then Franco Colapinto in the first lap, before eventually retiring the poor handling car as his troubled season continues to perplex his fans. Leclerc was in contention for a podium result, but he retired when he was collateral damage from the Piastri/Antonelli collision.
The fight for second in the constructors’ battle remains open, with Mercedes on 398 points, Red Bull on 366, and Ferrari on 362.
There’s also plenty to enjoy in the battle for P6-P9 in the table, with Racing Bulls ahead of Aston Martin, Haas and Sauber, and a spread of just 20 points between them.
It was another strong weekend for Haas and rookie Ollie Bearman, who again fought hard with some big names in the race and eventually finished P6 to claim more valuable points, outperforming more experienced team mate Esteban Ocon over the weekend.
Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar claimed points for Racing Bulls with seventh and eighth places, while Nico Hulkenberg earned P9 for Sauber. However it was a frustrating home race for the latter’s team mate and local hero Gabriel Bortoleto, who had a huge crash in the sprint and went off again on the first lap of the GP.
Aston Martin, the other team in that fight, scored a decent P6 with Fernando Alonso in the sprint. However the green cars were uncompetitive in the main event.
Williams was the only team that failed to score in Brazil, while the weekend saw a rare boost for Alpine as Pierre Gasly logged points with P8 in the sprint and P10 in the main race with a car that has recently been the slowest in the field.
Alpine was also the focus of the main off-track story, with Franco Colapinto finally confirmed alongside Gasly for 2026. The Argentine driver has had a difficult season, but in the end the team opted for continuity.
Meanwhile F1 stakeholders continue to talk about tweaks to the future sporting regulations, such as making two tyre stops compulsory, and ensuring that on sprint weekends track time lost to a red flag in the crucial FP1 session can be regained.
