An intro to the São Paulo GP
The drivers entered Brazil with a new order in the Driver’s Championship. A phenomenal first lap by Lando Norris cemented his win, and a worse performance by his teammate caused the two to flip in the standings. Norris hadn’t been on the top of the standings since Bahrain in April, and before Brazil he only had the lead by a meager one point.
Between each place that finishes in points in the sprint, the difference is only one point. P1 gets eight, P2 gets seven, and so on. In the main race, the points differential is much larger. Since there were two races this weekend, the championship lead had the possibility of being a rollercoaster of headlines.
Both McLaren cars have proved to be the biggest rockets of the season. Before summer break, the Australian showed his domination every week, but it’s been a fight to stay in the points ever since.
Updates since the last race
Other interesting news from the past week is the FIA considering implementing mandatory two stop races for the 2026 season. They tried this strategy this year at the Monaco GP, an extremely famous track but a notoriously boring one because of the lack of action. Unsurprisingly, the results were not too promising. Thus, they have also proposed a race format where all three tire compounds must be used or each stint must only be 45% of the race distance.
More breaking news since the Mexican GP is the revelation that neither Mercedes nor McLaren broke the 2024 cost cap as accused. Who knows if these accusations were founded based on real information. It’s highly likely the Papaya soaring to new heights last season made other teams suspicious.
Sprint
Piastri’s first chance to prove why he should be the 2025 champion came on Friday with the sprint qualifying. He managed to easily progress from Q1 to Q2, then finished P3 in Q3, the only driver to be in the top three for every sprint race so far this season. Norris qualified P1, with Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli starting P2 and his teammate George Russell taking the second spot on row two alongside Piastri. Don’t forget about Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen, who, even starting from P6 after claiming the car was awful during qualis, is reigning World Champion.
Astoundingly, Norris managed to hold his spot once again in the first lap. Perhaps because of the rookie starting next to him, or perhaps because of some rumors swirling that McLaren have been sabotaging Piastri’s car since they supposedly care more about Norris. Those opposing these rumors point out that Norris’ pit stops have been slower throughout the season. They claim that McLaren has had different difficulties with each driver’s strategy, but Piastri’s slow defeat is unfortunately due to his driving.
This latter take may have proved correct only a few laps into the sprint when he hit the barriers after losing control in turn three. Norris finishing P1 set them nine points apart.
Moments later, Alpine driver Franco Colapinto and Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg followed the domino effect and crashed as well. While Hulkenberg was able to rejoin, Colapinto and Piastri DNFed. Unfortunately, Hulkenberg's teammate Gabriel Bortoleto DNFed after a violent crash during the final lap. As a rookie, this was his home race and first F1 GP in front of his home crowd.
The race
Qualifying had almost identical results to sprint qualifying except Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc replaced Russell (P6) in P4. Also of note is that Verstappen started P16 after being knocked out in Q1. Maybe he was right about the slow car after all.
Talk about a drama-filled race! On lap one, tragedy struck again for Bortoleto. He spun into the barriers, prompting a yellow flag and safety car deployment. The extensive damage to his car from the sprint had prevented the Brazilian from taking part in qualifying. Hopefully he can redeem himself and at least finish the Las Vegas GP for a small ego boost.
On lap two, Hamilton had to pit due to damage to his front wing. Lap six, a charge by Piastri up the inside and subsequent tire lockout caused the Aussie to hit Antonelli. Antonelli then collided with Leclerc and the Ferrari lost a tire. A virtual safety car was deployed and Leclerc became the second driver to DNF. The race stewards mandated a ten-second penalty for Piastri.
The top five of the race was a constant battle. Verstappen, who started in the pitlane, capitalized on the multiple safety cars and took every opportunity to overtake. The damage to Hamilton’s Ferrari forced the Brit to retire, making this race a double Ferrari DNF.
Halfway through, Piastri found himself in first after the other drivers pitted. However, once everyone had stopped, his Papaya exited the top six.
Race strategy in São Paulo proved crucial to a strong finish. A second early pit by Norris to put on fresh tires saw him faster than Verstappen, but Verstappen was hanging on to only a seven-second lead. He pitted for fresh tires and re-entered in fourth. A brilliant overtake of Russell in turn 1 cemented his podium.
The Red Bull driver wasn’t able to overtake the second Mercedes, and ended P3. Norris crossed the chequered flag for a back-to-back win and a 25 point gain. Antonelli ended P2 in a career-best podium. Verstappen was P3, Russell P4 and Piastri P5.
Norris now sits 24 points ahead of his teammate with three races left in the season. All three will no doubt be nail biters, and the championship may come down to the last lap in Abu Dhabi.
