All the important thing moments from the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix as Lando Norris extends his championship lead and Max Verstappen rises to the rostrum

The Sao Paulo Grand Prix offered one other thrilling weekend of motion on the Autodromo Jose Carlos Tempo, from an action-packed Dash via to an interesting race on Sunday.

Whereas Lando Norris was victorious in each occasions – bolstering his championship lead within the course of – there have been blended fortunes throughout the three days of motion for his fellow title contenders Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, the latter bouncing again from a nightmare Qualifying to say an sudden podium.

For all that and extra, listed here are the important thing moments from Sao Paulo…

Norris’ good weekend extends the lead

Lando Norris has lengthy said that he doesn’t consider in momentum, however from the skin the Briton definitely on a constructive run as he arrived at Interlagos for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend.

Having retaken the Drivers’ Championship lead through a dominant win final day out in Mexico, Norris once more seemed robust because the Dash format returned for Spherical 21 on the calendar. The 25-year-old set the tempo in Friday’s sole observe session earlier than grabbing pole in Dash Qualifying.

He then transformed this right into a win throughout an eventful Dash on Saturday, resisting stress from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli late on to triumph amid altering observe situations. Simply hours later, his profitable sequence continued with one other pole place, this time in Qualifying for Sunday’s race.

With championship rivals Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen dealing with trickier periods – extra on which beneath – the chances seemed much more in Norris’ favour forward of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. And so it was that the British racer executed one other spectacular efficiency to seal a seventh victory of the marketing campaign.

Whereas Norris conceded afterwards that he was “dissatisfied that we weren’t faster” following the eye-catching tempo of Verstappen – who completed 10 seconds behind in third – which means that he is not going to be resting on his laurels, the consequence definitely added to his title probabilities.

Main the way in which all through the weekend has seen Norris’ factors tally develop to 390, giving him a 24-point benefit over Piastri in second whereas he now sits 49 factors away from third-placed Verstappen with three rounds to go.

Verstappen’s rise from pit lane to podium

As touched on above, Verstappen skilled fairly the rollercoaster weekend in Sao Paulo, a observe at which he memorably received in 2024 after storming via the sphere from P17 on the grid.

The Dutchman was sad along with his automobile on Friday, lamenting a “horrible” feeling in Dash Qualifying that noticed him take P6 on the grid. Whereas he recovered to fourth within the 100-kilometre sprint, worse was to return for Verstappen a number of hours later in Qualifying for the Grand Prix.

Adjustments made to his Pink Bull earlier than the session backfired because the four-time World Champion struggled for grip and made a shock Q1 exit in P16. As such, the group opted to make varied adjustments to his RB21 previous to the race, in Parc Ferme situations, which means Verstappen would subsequently begin from the pit lane.

After gaining positions within the opening laps, Verstappen’s comeback drive quickly hit a snag when he picked up a puncture, leading to an early pit cease. Nonetheless, from there the 28-year-old set about selecting off the automobiles round him as he labored his approach up the order.

At one stage Verstappen was even main – following a pit cease for Norris – however he once more slipped again just a little following a late go to to the pits to bolt on a recent set of sentimental tyres. Nonetheless, this allowed the reigning champion to go on the hunt, culminating in an thrilling battle with Antonelli for P2 within the closing phases.

Verstappen was unable to make a transfer by the chequered flag and needed to accept third, however being on the rostrum in any respect was an end result that he acknowledged he “didn’t count on in any respect” just some hours earlier. “It’s an unbelievable consequence for us,” he remarked afterwards.

One other blow for Piastri

What was a single level deficit to Norris within the standings heading into the weekend in Sao Paulo has now widened to 24 factors, summing up an entirely irritating spherical for Piastri.

He knew that he might progress from P3 initially of the Dash, going so far as to pledge that he would “undoubtedly combat”, however he ended up within the limitations after simply six laps.

The Australian took an excessive amount of kerb at Flip 3 and the greasy floor despatched him into the wall – an error which Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto shortly replicated, forcing a pink flag. With Norris later successful the Dash, his benefit was already as much as 9 factors by the top of Saturday.

Piastri then certified in P4 for the Grand Prix and had his sights firmly set on a podium on the very least, however his ambition of recovering positions proved to be his undoing. While attempting to cross Antonelli on the Security Automobile restart, he locked up and clipped the Mercedes, with the Italian driver subsequently crashing into Charles Leclerc.

Piastri did reach bettering to P2, however he was quickly handed a 10-second time penalty for inflicting a collision and it was an uphill battle from then onwards. After serving it, he might solely handle to stand up to fifth place earlier than getting caught behind George Russell, ending half a second behind him.

Norris’ victory and Verstappen’s supreme efficiency now sees Piastri 25 factors forward of the Dutchman within the standings and 24 behind his group mate, leaving the title battle as unpredictable as ever.

Antonelli scores his best-ever consequence

Mercedes don’t conceal the truth that their automobile massively prefers cooler climate, making the gray skies and drizzle in Sao Paulo an alluring prospect for Antonelli and Russell.

The rookie driver tailored to the situations quickly, sustaining his second-place spot all through the Dash and boldly difficult Norris for the lead, earlier than he secured P2 as soon as once more in Qualifying for the primary occasion.

Doubt was forged on his hope of returning to the rostrum as he collided with each Piastri and Leclerc, however whereas these two suffered with a penalty and DNF respectively, Antonelli emerged with none important injury.

He stayed out of hassle for the remainder of the race however got here below immense stress from a charging Verstappen within the closing laps. Holding his cool, he took the chequered flag simply three-tenths forward of the Pink Bull, incomes himself his finest end of his Method 1 profession up to now.

“It was undoubtedly essentially the most full weekend of the season up to now,” he mentioned. “I feel we’ve lastly been placing issues collectively. I’m simply blissful. I feel we maximised the efficiency, the consequence, and bought some good factors within the Constructors’. We have to hold pushing.”

Ferrari endure double DNF ache

Ferrari had a weekend to overlook at Interlagos, struggling their second double retirement of the season after Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc crashed out of the Dutch Grand Prix again in August.

It began with a difficult Dash Qualifying, the place Hamilton was eradicated in SQ2 and Leclerc might solely place eighth – behind each McLarens, each Mercedes automobiles, each Aston Martins and Verstappen’s Pink Bull.

There was a glimmer of hope on one facet of the storage in the primary Qualifying session, which noticed Leclerc cost his option to P3 after one other second-phase exit for Hamilton, however any hopes of changing that into robust factors have been quickly dashed.

Leclerc was the harmless sufferer in a Lap 9, Flip 1 collision that began when Piastri dove up the within of Antonelli – the pair making contact and the Italian teenager being despatched into Leclerc’s path.

Hamilton, in the meantime, had been nursing important injury after early contact with Colapinto’s Alpine, so extreme that the seven-time World Champion – who had admirably ploughed on – was ultimately known as again to the pits to retire his automobile.

Not solely was it vastly irritating for each drivers, whose ache was seen throughout their post-race TV interviews, nevertheless it additionally served as a setback to Ferrari’s ambitions of ending second within the Groups’ Championship – Mercedes’ robust double factors end transferring them nicely clear and Pink Bull additionally slotting forward.

Interlagos delivers one other eventful weekend

There was drama from begin to end over the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, at an Interlagos venue that has produced so many traditional races and decisive championship moments over time.

It began with a gripping Dash Qualifying and Dash, which noticed Norris and Antonelli do battle over pole place and the win, with loads of scrapping and overtaking behind to maintain followers on the sting of their seats.

The 100-kilometre sprint took a scary flip when dwelling hero Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out closely on the first nook whereas attempting to clear Williams rival Alex Albon, however he fortunately managed to stroll away from the incident unhurt.

An enormous shock adopted in the primary Qualifying session when Verstappen – who had been struggling along with his Pink Bull all weekend – bought knocked out in Q1, forcing him into one other restoration drive after his P17-to-victory effort final yr.

One other drama and overtake-filled race on Sunday delivered loads extra speaking factors, from Bortoleto’s emotional exit to Ferrari’s nightmare and Verstappen’s exceptional drive that concerned him turning a pit lane begin right into a podium end.

Rising above all of it was Norris, who edged additional forward of group mate Piastri within the race for the 2025 Drivers’ title – simply three extra rounds to return, all in a back-to-back sequence, to settle who wins it.