NORRIS BEGINS NAILING THE FINAL NAILS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP!...PIASTRI LOOSING INTEREST…MAX DRIVER OF THE DAY AND...FERNANDO READY FOR LAS VEGAS. THIS WEEK'S NASIR HAMEED CORNER, WE KEEP IT SIMPLE WITH SOME DUKE OF DIJON AND NASIR BANTER!
It was a dominant performance from Lando Norris as he claimed his seventh victory of the year, following up on his victory in the sprint race with another 25 points on Sunday, extending his championship lead to 24 points over Oscar Piastri.
Early race i...
NORRIS BEGINS NAILING THE FINAL NAILS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP!...PIASTRI LOOSING INTEREST…MAX DRIVER OF THE DAY AND...FERNANDO READY FOR LAS VEGAS. THIS WEEK'S NASIR HAMEED CORNER, WE KEEP IT SIMPLE WITH SOME DUKE OF DIJON AND NASIR BANTER!
It was a dominant performance from Lando Norris as he claimed his seventh victory of the year, following up on his victory in the sprint race with another 25 points on Sunday, extending his championship lead to 24 points over Oscar Piastri.
Early race incidents would leave Oscar Piastri with a shock penalty and lead to the retirement of Charles Leclerc through no fault of his own.
And in unexpected fashion, Max Verstappen would grab fans' attention following his conversion of a pit-lane start all the way to a P3 finish, grabbing a podium on a day many fans would expect his championship shot to slip away from him.
None of the top ten were able to get past each other in the initial portion of Lap 1 except Liam Lawson on George Russell, with Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari having the weakest start of any on the grid, dropping four places into 17th.
A loss of control from home favorite Gabriel Bortoleto in the Sauber occurred only halfway through the first lap, causing the 21-year-old to hit the barriers, bringing out a safety car and ending his race.
The safety car was brought out for the third time in a row at the Brazilian Grand Prix, lasting for three laps and coming in on Lap 4.
There was more chaos immediately, as Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri went three abreast at Turn 1 after the Italian struggled to keep up with Lando Norris' pace following the restart.
Piastri and Antonelli would collide, sending the Mercedes into Leclerc's Ferrari and causing the Monegasque racer to lose both a tire and incur suspension damage, ending his race prematurely.
Unable to continue, Leclerc's Ferrari would pull over and bring out a Virtual Safety Car, with the McLarens of Norris and Piastri leading from the Mercedes of Antonelli and the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar.
Laps 14 and 17 would see ten-second penalties applied for both Yuki Tsunoda and Oscar Piastri, with Tsunoda's given for an incident with Lance Stroll and Piastri's for the aforementioned crash after the safety car restart.
Verstappen, who had taken an early pit stop to change from hard tires to mediums, found himself up to seventh by Lap 19 thanks to Hadjar and Pierre Gasly entering the pit lane.
Seventh turned into fifth by Lap 21, the Dutchman having gained 15 places in the first third of the race and looking impressive as he looked to restore his championship ambitions.
LANDO:
“It was an amazing race, and it's nice to win here in Brazil. It's an amazing track with amazing fans. This one was for one of my mentors, Gil, I hope he'd be very proud.
“It was a great win, but to be honest, seeing how quick the competition was
today, it's clear we’ve still got work to do. I'll go back, see the team, congratulate them and see what we can do better. Looking ahead, I'll keep focusing on myself, keep my head down, ignore the noise and keep pushing.”
MAX:
From pitlane to podium, this weekend has completely turned around for me, something that I didn't think was possible. The start of the race was very hectic and I picked up a puncture early on from a load of debris on the track which meant that I pretty much had to start the race again. The Team used the right strategy from start to finish which allowed me to get through all of the traffic very efficiently. I definitely had to send it a few times to get past the other cars but I love doing that and ended up having an unexpectedly fun race. Overall it showed that we had really good pace today and that the grip was much better than the last couple of days. The atmosphere at Interlagos was amazing and it really spurred me on. I am so proud of the Team and would like to thank them for all of the hard work that they put into making the changes post Quali last night.
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - NOVEMBER 09: Race winner Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren Second placed Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Third placed Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Mark Norris, Director of Commercial Trackside Operations at McLaren on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Brazil at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on November 09, 2025 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
We kept pushing and took multiple risks this weekend because we never want to settle for second and we didn't give up. To start in the pitlane and finish P3 on the podium only 10 seconds off P1 was incredible. Now all we can do is keep fighting hard over the final few races of the season and do the best that we possibly can whilst trying to find as much performance as we can extract from the car. A huge congratulations to Kimi as well, he drove amazingly well which will have given his confidence a huge boost which is great for any rookie!"
Alex Albon:
It was a good race for the fans today but unfortunately for us it was a bit of a race to forget. We had good pace when we could show it. We've struggled with pace all weekend but seem to have recovered a little bit today. In the end what took us out of contention for points was that I think we stayed out too long on the first stint and we never really recovered from there. In the last stint we were quick and were fighting our way back up the grid and just missed out on a point at the end. It's frustrating that our rivals scored points today, but we will regroup and look forward to a better weekend in Las Vegas.
Carlos Sainz:
Not the day I was hoping for. Once I got squeezed on turn 1, I had considerable damage to the car and my race was compromised from there. We managed to stay in the hunt for points most of the race but after a slow first stop and compiled with the damage, that was it unfortunately. Time to go back home and see what we can do in these types of circuits, as Qatar will also be a challenge. A few races to go, so we cannot relax. Let’s keep going.
