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Formula OneLando Norris has continued his incredible F1 turnaround by storming to a dominant victory in the 2025 Sao Paulo GP. The McLaren driver is now 24 points ahead of teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri with just three rounds remaining. And even with Norris crossing the line in P1 across every session in Brazil, Max Verstappen was the star driver after going from the pit lane to the podium from an incredible drive on a frenetic Grand Prix Sunday.
While Norris drove an excellent high-pressure lap in Qualifying for pole position, Verstappen slumped to a rare Q1 exit. Red Bull opted to work on the four-time champion's car overnight, and their changes turned the Dutchman's weekend upside down. Verstappen used his new power unit to storm through the field to a P3 finish, but even that downplays the drama from Sao Paulo.
Norris held the lead from Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the race start, with the Italian teenager enjoying his best F1 weekend of his fledgling career. A mixture of Pirelli compounds on the grid promised various strategies and launch speeds as teams tried to anticipate the best tyre choice for the 71 laps. The race, however, stuttered in its start, with a crash for Gabriel Bortoleto bringing out a Lap 1 Safety Car.
The Brazilian driver endured a torrid weekend in front of his home crowd. His maiden Interlagos weekend had him sustain a 57G crash in Saturday's Sprint, and he went no further than Lap 1 in the Grand Prix itself. Lance Stroll didn't leave Bortoleto any space heading into Turn 10, and the Sauber hit the barriers to neutralise the race with a Safety Car.
Yet further drama came before the deployment, with Lewis Hamilton hitting Franco Colapinto's rear when chasing the Alpine down the pit straight. Hamilton misjudged the speed difference and lost his front wing, taking damage that ultimately led to a retirement later in the race.
Things didn't go so well for the sister Ferrari of Charles Leclerc on the race restart, either. With Antonelli suffering from a slow reaction time when Norris went full throttle, Piastri went for a move on the inside into Turn 1. However, with Leclerc simultaneously going around the outside of the Italian, Antonelli turned in across Piastri to avoid the Ferrari. Piastri hit Antonelli, who skidded into Leclerc, causing terminal damage and a Virtual Safety Car.
The stewards deemed Piastri responsible for the incident and handed down a 10-second penalty for the crash. Even though the Australian had passed Antonelli in the move, he'd later fall back when pitting thanks to the 10-second delay before he could swap tyres. Norris was further aided in his P1 hopes by Verstappen getting a puncture from debris and needing to pit. Red Bull swapped his Pirelli Hards for Mediums ahead of the race resumption on Lap 9, and Verstappen got to work picking his way through the field.
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Verstappen sat in P18 with 62 laps to go, but he didn't last long in those lowly positions, with overtakes on Hamilton and Fernando Alonso as the three world champions occupied the bottom ten places. That didn't remain the case for Verstappen for long, though, as the split tyre strategies began to split apart the field. The earlier puncture had Verstappen on grippier Pirelli rubber than those around him, and he pushed that advantage to go longer into the race, picking his way through midfielders. Reaching P4 by the time Norris pitted, Verstappen had very much joined the fight for the podium.
To highlight just how high Verstappen had reached, the Red Bull racer was ahead of Piastri after the Australian's long pit stop with his penalty, and had reached an authentic P5 on track by Lap 39. With others stopping for a third set of Pirelli rubber, Verstappen reached P1. It looked possible that he could reach the end on his Mediums after taking an early stop for the puncture and therefore having fewer laps to complete once he stopped for his first scheduled tyre change. It would be a case of defending with ageing tyres, but being high up the order.
Red Bull opted to roll the dice, though, bringing Verstappen in from the lead for a set of Softs and a 16-lap push to the finish. This grandstand ending had Verstappen return to the track in P4, and gunning hard to close the gap to George Russell's P3 and Antonelli's P2. It took just eight laps for him to power to Russell's rear wing, and a sweeping overtake on the outside of Turn 1 had the reigning champion up into the podium spots.
The final laps had Piastri also chasing down Russell, while the sister Mercedes of Antonelli had Verstappen almost pushing the Mercedes around Interlagos. Norris ended the race with a comfortable 10s advantage, but the order of those behind him was only established in the final metres. Antonelli made all the right moves to fend off Verstappen, though a mistake in the tough-to-pass second sector almost lost him P2. Verstappen clinched P3, and Russell did enough to hold back the charging Piastri after his penalty to secure P4.
It leaves Norris a sizeable 24 points ahead in the standings as F1 heads to Las Vegas for the final race in the Americas. A triple-header awaits the sport for its closing moments of the 2025 season. Norris has the form to become the champion, but he'll have to navigate a busy three weekends of action to take the title. Verstappen's hopes of the crown look to be over, but a single DNF could yet add another twist in this season of surprises.
