Sao Paulo GP Sprint: Norris fends off Antonelli, Piastri crashes

This was Norris' second consecutive Sprint Race win at Interlagos which meant that he has extended his advantage over Piastri to nine points in the F1 Drivers' Championship. Kimi Antonelli was second while George Russell was third in the sister Mercedes as Max Verstappen only managed fourth.

Norris started the race from pole and managed to keep his lead at the start despite being on Mediums while Antonelli gambled on Soft tyres hoping to pass the McLaren driver on Lap 1.

However, the Italian rookie could not manage to pass and ended up defending from Piastri which did not last long as the Australian took too much kerb at Turn 3 on Lap 6 and spun ending up in the barriers, an error copied by Hulkenberg and Colapinto.

The Safety Car was out but then the Sprint was Red-flagged as the marshals needed to repair the barriers which was on Lap 8 of 24.

On the restart, Norris switched from Mediums to Softs as Race Control inexplicably decided on a rolling restart upon which the #4 kept the lead.

Russell tried to pass his teammate at the restart but failed to do so and dropped back as the race progressed while Antonelli made use of Norris' struggle on Soft tyres towards the end and a mistake.

The Italian was back within DRS on Lap 20, but Norris did enough on the final four laps to keep the Mercedes at bay and take the win.

With Antonelli and Russell completing the podium, Verstappen could not make any inroads struggling with the ride of his car as he started the race on Soft tyres making up one position and then another when Piastri retired.

A switch to Mediums changed nothing for the Dutchman after the restart, and was even under attack from Fernando Alonso who was on Softs. Fourth was all Verstappen could muster after keeping Alonso at bay.

After a brief attack on Verstappen, Alonso had to go on the defensive as Charles Leclerc closed in on him the the Ferrari and after a relentless chase, the Monegasque managed to pass on Lap 22 as the Spaniard locked up into Turn 1 and giving up his place at Turn 4.

Alonso managed to keep the second Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton behind, taking sixth place as the seven-time F1 Champion was seventh, a decent result after starting from 11th with a strong start lifting him to the points-scoring positions.

The final point went to Pierre Gasly in the Alpine as the Frenchman passed the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll to take eighth.

Local hero, Gabriel Bortoleto, crashed heavily on the final lap, which his qualifying now in jeopardy as the damage on his Sauber was massive with his mechanics facing a challenge to get it rebuilt.

However the Brazilian rookie was safe.

Speaking after the Sprint, Norris admitted he had to work hard for this win; he said: "It was tough. It makes the win more rewarding when you have a race like this!

"With Kimi here, he was certainly not making my life easy," the McLaren driver went on. "It's one of those ones where you have to push, because you know the guy behind will push behind a bit more.

"It was sketchy! Even with the wind and the degradation on the tyres, it was difficult. Not an easy race but it's always a difficult one in Brazil. Mercedes were quick.

"I expected us to be a bit better, but we weren't. I don't know how much of that is down to tyres or did Mercedes do a good job," Norris concluded.

"It was a very fun race," Antonelli said after delivering a feisty performance to take second place. "It was very tricky conditions, especially at the beginning.

"We tried to keep the pressure on Lando. Just came up short, but it was a fun race. Definitely the confidence is high but the field is so tight.

"We’ll see today what we can do, but hopefully we can achieve the same result or even better," the rookie concluded, looking ahead to Qualifying.

Third-placed Russell was encouraged by Mercedes' pace in the Sprint Race; he commented: "It was a good race for us.

"Kimi did a great job and put Lando under pressure. We need to do the same in Qualifying, which is so tight. There was a lot of tyre degradation there. But we feel good, the temperature is cool which is how we like it," he added.