SAO PAULO, Brazil — Lando Norris claimed victory in an action-packed Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Saturday.
Norris, who extended his Formula 1 point lead with the victory, kept his McLaren ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli amid changing conditions in an event that saw the Norris’ teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri crash out early on.
“It was tough. Yeah, it was tough,” Norris said. “I mean, it makes the win a little bit more rewarding when you have a race like this. Especially with Kimi here, he was certainly not making my life easy.
“But it’s one of those ones where you have to push because you know the guy behind is going to try and push a little bit more. But it was sketchy. I had a couple little lifts. Even with the wind, it was tricky. With the degradation on the tires, it was difficult. So, yeah, definitely not an easy race, but probably the race you expect here in Brazil – always a difficult one.”
While the Sprint got off to a relatively calm start – with Norris leading smoothly away from pole – the picture changed within a few laps when Piastri hit the barriers after getting on the damp curbs at Turn 3, with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto subsequently going off at the same corner moments later.
The Sprint was subsequently red-flagged as the damage was cleared, but Norris again held the lead when the event resumed shortly afterwards. That position looked in doubt during the final laps, however, as the Briton struggled with his rear soft tires and found himself under increasing pressure from Antonelli.
With the event ending under double yellow flags following a heavy crash for Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Norris ultimately held off Antonelli to take the win by 0.845 seconds.
“It was a very fun race,” Antonelli said. “You know, it was very tricky conditions, especially at the beginning. But we tried to keep the pressure on Lando and, yeah, just came up short. But, you know, tire deg was quite big and the wind was picking up during the race, so it was a struggle, but it was a fun race.”
George Russell added to a solid outing for Mercedes in third, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took some valuable points in fourth should he hope to keep his title bid alive. Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari after a late pass on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, with the other Scuderia car of Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly following in seventh and eighth places.
