Norris stays ahead of weather twists in decisive Sao Paulo GP win

Lando Norris claimed a comfortable victory at a chaotic wet-weather Sao Paulo Grand Prix, while Mercedes won its ninth Formula 1 constructors championship despite neither driver finishing on the podium.

The race got underway with the field on intermediate tires after rain doused the grid. Norris started from pole alongside Kimi Antonelli but couldn’t convert, with the new world champion getting the perfect launch to claim the apex of the first turn.

Liam Lawson, starting third, then compounded Norris’s losses by sweeping around his outside at the same corner to move into second place. It helped Antonelli build an early lead for six laps until Norris could barge past the Kiwi.

Meanwhile, further back, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen executed tremendous launches from 20th and 21st on the grid.

Hamilton was particularly punchy on the opening lap, rounding up the midfield through the opening turns to start lap 2 an impressive ninth.

Verstappen moved up to 13th, but his less aggressive early battles ensured his intermediate tires were more useful as the track dried. By lap 3 he was past Hamilton, and by lap 8 he was into the top six.

Hamilton suffered the reverse fate, sliding back down the order and out of the points as his wet-weather rear tires wore away. On lap 14 the team brought him in for softs in what turned out to be the perfectly timed stop, setting off pit stops for the rest of the field.

Mercedes left Antonelli out in the lead for an extra lap, while McLaren stopped Norris. The decision gave the Englishman an enormous undercut advantage, reducing his deficit to less than a second, and on warmer soft tires he turned up the pressure on the Italian on his out-lap.

“Something weird with the car,” Antonelli radioed, and though he was assured it was just a lack of tire temperature, he dramatically spun his car at the first turn of lap 20, allowing Norris through.

“The car is accelerating on one side when accelerating. It’s so weird,” Antonelli said, suspecting suspension problems that the team couldn’t identify. “I can’t turn on the left corners. Like the car is steering by itself.”

His pace dropping off, Norris was able to open a comfortable advantage in the lead, his margin growing to 10s just after half distance. Antonelli’s lack of pace made him vulnerable to Isack Hadjar, the Red Bull Racing driver having benefited from an early switch to slicks.

He demoted the Mercedes to third, and Max Verstappen – a well-timed slick stop turbocharging his back-to-podium recovery – took third off the Italian on lap 24. Red Bull Racing then ordered Hadjar to allow the Dutchman through to chase Norris, though he couldn’t lay a glove on the 2025 champion.

The race entered a holding pattern, and with the forecast second band of rain missing the track, most drivers made second pit stops for more softs as the race approached lap 50. But a third band of rain arrived for the final 10 laps, giving Norris and his pursuers a final problem to solve, with a switch back to intermediates required.

A slick stop for McLaren kept Norris the lead, and the Englishman continued opening his margin at a ferocious pace to take the checkered flag by 14.6s.

“It was a very tough race – very, very tough,” he said. “The main thing today was I just kept it cool and I didn’t make any mistakes.

“I had the pace when I needed to, so it was good. It’s nice to be back on the top step. What a place to do it as well.”

Verstappen lamented that he couldn’t maintain the momentum of his first stint through to the finish, querying whether his car had picked up damage somewhere along the way.

“That first stint on the inters was really, really strong,” he said. “Unfortunately after that I don’t know if we picked up some kind of damage, because the car felt completely opposite to anything that I felt the whole weekend, with some really weird balance.

“We have to understand what went wrong there, but starting P21 and being on the podium in second is I think a very good result.”

Hadjar had been challenging Verstappen for second place in the first soft stint, but a decision to attempt to go to the end without another stop – but then stopping for another set of slicks anyway – cost him significant ground to the Dutchman on fresher tires, leaving him locked into third.

“It was so, so difficult,” he said. “I’m happy to be standing third today.”

George Russell recovered from his pit lane spin by sticking it out on just one set of softs until the rain arrived. With warmer tires, he was able to catch and pass Antonelli to take fourth place from his teammate with the help of a team order – and fourth and fifth were more than enough to secure a ninth constructors championship for the team, its first since 2021.

“It’s amazing,” said team boss Toto Wolff. “It was a very strong beginning of the season, and that kind of got us over the line.

“I’m so proud of the organization. We’ve taken a few years to be back on the top spot – not many teams have been able to come back from such a situation.”

Oscar Piastri finished sixth, losing early time stuck behind Alex Albon on intermediate tires that he couldn’t recover. Charles Leclerc rescued seventh, up seven places from where he started, by following Russell in saving his second stop until the rain arrived. He overcame Lawson late after hitting the Racing Bulls at Junção late in the race and they slipped and slid their way through the rain.

Lawson finished eighth after his early heroics, while Hamilton’s fast start couldn’t be maintained, leaving him ninth with fast-wearing tires.

Nico Hulkenberg scored the final point of the race after a late pass on Arvid Lindblad – and despite having served a 10s penalty at his final stop.

Lindblad finished 11th ahead of Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly, Albon, Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and debutant Rafael Camara.

Lance Stroll retired, while Valtteri Bottas failed to take the start after his right-rear wheel nut was cross-threaded on the grid, rendering the wheel stuck to the assembly.

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