By Joe Murphy
Lando Norris won a chaotic wet-dry-wet São Paulo Grand Prix from pole position, while Mercedes secured the constructors’ championship a week after Kimi Antonelli had sealed the drivers’ title.
It was Norris’s third win of the season and his second in succession at Interlagos. It was also his most composed drive of the year. He led for 47 of the 71 laps, handled three changes of conditions and finished 14.602 seconds clear of a charging Max Verstappen.
The weekend had started in the rain. In a wet qualifying session on Saturday, Norris took pole with a 1:27.470, his third pole in a row at this circuit. George Russell qualified second, 0.204 seconds behind, with Antonelli third. Liam Lawson was a surprise fourth for Racing Bulls, Oscar Piastri fifth, Charles Leclerc sixth, Isack Hadjar seventh, Lewis Hamilton eighth, Pierre Gasly ninth and Franco Colapinto tenth.
The grid, however, bore little resemblance to the qualifying order. Russell took a five-place penalty for a new internal combustion engine, dropping him to seventh. Leclerc took a 10-place penalty for a power unit change. Hamilton, who was starting his 400th Grand Prix, took penalties that left him 20th. Verstappen, who had qualified 13th after a difficult session, took a raft of engine penalties and started 21st.
That set up one of the great Interlagos races.
It began on intermediate tyres on a damp track. Norris made a poor start. Antonelli dived down the inside into the Senna S to take the lead, and Lawson went around the outside of the McLaren at Turn Two to snatch second. By the end of the first lap, Norris was third.
Lawson held second for five laps, the high point of a superb weekend for Racing Bulls, before Norris found a way past. The lead then came back to Norris on lap 12 when Antonelli spun at Turn One in the drying conditions and dropped down the order. From that moment, Norris was untouchable.
Verstappen, meanwhile, was producing another Interlagos classic. Starting 21st, he was 13th by the end of lap one, eighth by lap five and in the top three by the middle of the race. It recalled his famous win from 17th in 2024, although this time he never had the pace to threaten Norris. Hadjar, who had run second early on, let his team-mate through to chase the McLaren and then settled into a superb third of his own, giving Red Bull a double podium.
Behind them, the story was Mercedes. Both drivers spun. Russell spun coming out of the pits after switching to soft tyres on lap 17, brushing the wall and dropping to 10th. Antonelli had his earlier spin and later had a near miss in the pit lane, almost colliding with an Alpine on an unsafe release for which he was given a five-second post-race penalty. It did not cost him a place.
The two Mercedes drivers then swapped positions twice as they tried in vain to chase down Hadjar for third. In the end Russell finished fourth and Antonelli fifth. It was enough. Mercedes needed only three points more than Ferrari to clinch the title and they got them with ease. It is the team’s ninth constructors’ championship, and its first since 2021.
Oscar Piastri was sixth for McLaren in a quiet race, with Charles Leclerc seventh on the road after a late battle with Lawson. Leclerc was later given a five-second penalty for contact with Lawson’s left rear tyre and dropped to eighth, promoting Lawson to seventh. Hamilton, who had charged from 20th to ninth by the end of lap one and then spun himself when the rain returned, finished ninth. Nico Hulkenberg took the final point in tenth for Audi.
It was a miserable home race for Brazil’s two drivers. Gabriel Bortoleto finished 16th for Audi and debutant Rafael Camara, standing in at Haas, was 20th and last. Lance Stroll retired with a battery issue and Valtteri Bottas did not start after a problem on the formation lap.
For Norris, who lost his crown to Antonelli in Mexico, this was a reminder of his quality. For Mercedes, it completed the double.
