Sao Paulo Grand Prix: Victory for Norris, brilliant Antonelli P2, monster Verstappen P3
F1 NewsSunday, 09 November 2025 at 19:41
Lando Norris capped off a perfect weekend in Interlagos after winning the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole while Max Verstappen delivered a monstrous drive from the pitlane to finish third as he failed to pass Kimi Antonelli who was second.
Norris did not put foot wrong over the course of the 71 laps around Interlagos and survived the race start, a Safety Car restart, and a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to go on and take his seventh victory in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Mercedes had put Antonelli on Soft tyres for the start of the race hoping he can jump Norris at the start as the latter opted for the Medium, but the rookie did not succeed but managed to keep second place.
But even before Lap 1 was over, local hero, Gabriel Bortoleto found the walls after contact with Lance Stroll, and was out on the spot bringing out the Safety Car. At the same time, Lewis Hamilton, who started from 13th and lost positions after contact with Carlos Sainz at the start, tapped the rear of Franco Colapinto trying to pass him and broke his front wing.
Hamilton returned to the pits for a new front wing, but was informed that his floor was damaged after driving over his own front wing.
Then came the restart, and it was drama all over again as Antonelli tried to attack Norris but fell short and was under attack from Oscar Piastri into Turn 1 as Charles Leclerc was on the outside as three were trying to make the corner.
Piastri locked up and tagged Antonelli sending him into the Ferrari of Leclerc who suffered front left wheel damage and was out on the spot with the VSC coming out.
With Hamilton later retiring on Lap 38 after also receiving a five-second penalty, that concluded a disastrous and pointless race for Ferrari.
Verstappen who was up to 13th at that point (Lap 7), had to pit to get rid of the Hard tyres he started on after suffering puncture and rejoined in 18th.
With the VSC out of the way, Norris led the field with Piastri behind him as Antonelli was third, but soon after that the Australian was hit with a ten-second penalty for his contact with the Italian.
Following the VSC, the race calmed down a bit as the drivers settled into their rhythm with the strategy games beginning as the leading cars were on a two-stop strategy regardless of the tyres they started on (Medium or Soft) as everyone avoided the Hard compounds.
Verstappen, however, was surging through the field, even leading the race at one point when Norris pitted for the final time, but soon had to pit himself for the final stint on Soft tyres. That was on Lap 55 and he rejoined in fourth and set out chasing George Russell.
Russell was struggling with his brake as Verstappen reeled him in and passed him with a brilliant pass on the outside of Turn 1 on Lap 63 and went on chasing Antonelli.
But the young Italian showed he had a wise head on young shoulders and kept his cool, defending solidly from the four-time F1 Champion chasing him and managed to keep him at bay to take second place, his best result since his debut at the start of this season.
Behind the top three
With Verstappen finishing third, Russell had another mission which was to defend from Piastri who was chasing hard to try a limit the damage to his Championship chances.
The Australian was on the final stint having emerged in sixth following his second pit stop, and while he gave it his all, he was not able to pass Russell and had to settle for fifth.
Piastri leaves Sao Paulo, now 24 points behind Norris in the F1 Drivers' Championship while he also saw his lead over third-placed Verstappen reduced to 25 points.
In sixth came Ollie Bearman who also delivered drive from eighth on the grid in the Haas while his teammate, Esteban Ocon, started from the pitlane to finish 12th.
Liam Lawson was seventh, as he led teammate Isack Hadjar home who was eighth on another strong day for the Racing Bulls.
Nico Hulkenberg, the remaining Sauber in the race after Bortoleto's Lap 1 crash finish the race in ninth as Pierre Gasly delivered a solid drive for Alpine to take the final point after finishing in tenth.
What the top three said
After taking his 11th F1 career win, Norris said: "Crazy race! Nice to win here in Brazil. It's an amazing track, amazing fans.
"This was for one of my mentors Gil [de Ferran]. A perfect weekend," he added, paying tribute to the late Brazilian who died back in 2023 and was McLaren's Sporting Director.
Norris was asked how he was able to turn things around recently to go on and deliver one of his most dominant weekend to date; he said: "Just ignore everyone that talks c*** about you! Just focus on yourself.
"The team are doing an amazing job, giving me a great car. We are pushing hard every single weekend and I'm pushing hard away from the track.
"Rewarding. It doesn't come easy. To be honest, I don't think we were the quickest today but I'm glad to take home the win," Norris concluded.
Antonelli, on the other hand, did not hide his surprise to see Verstappen in his mirrors in the final laps of the race; he commented: "I don't know where this guy [Verstappen] came from, to be honest! I didn't see it coming.
"To be fair, I was lucky to come away from the restart with the contact," he said of his incident with Piastri. "Need to check the car, it felt a bit weird afterwards, but still a good race.
"The last laps were very stressful with Max coming with fresher tyres but luckily with free air we were able to maintain a decent pace and finish P2.
"I found my rhythm. When he was closing in, I raised the pace and started to push a bit more. With these cars with dirty air it's a bit difficult to follow so I tried to use that to my advantage and it paid off," the 19-year-old concluded.
As for Verstappen, he added: "The race was quite full on. A lot of action. I had to overtake some cars, coming from the pit lane.
"Our pace was quite strong, overall, the stints. To be on the podium, I did not expect that at all, even with a puncture at the beginning, that's why we had to box again.
"Incredible result for us. Very happy with that. Very proud of everyone. Yesterday was very tough. We never give up. We always try to improve and find more lap time and luckily we found that again today.
"To finish only 10 seconds from the lead is incredible," the Dutchman concluded.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix Provisional Classification
loading
Latest News
Loading
