Lando Norris won Saturday’s (Nov. 8) F1 Sprint race at Interlagos after starting from pole position with Kimi Antonelli in tow. Norris controlled the race from start to finish and now leads championship rival and teammate Oscar Piastri by 9 points after the Australian crashed out from third place.
George Russell completed the podium.
“It was tough,” Norris told Sky Sports’ James Hinchcliffe after the race. “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. It’s one of those [races] where you have to push because you know the guy behind is going to try and push that little bit more.
“It was sketchy. I had a couple of little lifts. But even with the wind, it was tricky. With the degradation on the tires, it was difficult. Definitely not an easy race, but probably the race you’re expecting around Brazil — always a difficult one.”
Behind the leaders, the Sprint was riddled with crashes.
Piastri lost the back of his McLaren entering Curva do Sol at turn 3 on lap 6, backing his car into the barriers and ending his day. Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto both lost control in the same spot seconds later. Colapinto’s day was over while Hulkenberg was able to drive back to the pits for repairs.
The amount of clean up required from the incident brought out a Safety Car and then a red-flag period. Racing resumed on lap 9, from which point the rest of the race was a straight chase between Norris and Antonelli.
Norris ultimately held Antonelli off to take the win while the Italian took the best finish of his F1 career to date. Behind the leaders, however, Gabriel Bortoleto lost control of his KICK Sauber entering turn 1 on the final lap, and crashed violently.
The Brazilian was closing in on Alexander Albon’s Williams at the end of the frontstretch when he attempted a dive to the inside of turn 1. However, with DRS open and a slick racing surface, the car lost grip and slid into the inside wall before sliding across the track and slamming into the tun 1 run-off barrier.
Bortoleto was quick to radio to his team that he was okay. He was credited with an 18th place finish, having completed more than 90% of the race distance.
2025 F1 Sprint Results: Brazil
Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix will kick off at 1 p.m. ET, Saturday afternoon, with the race following Sunday (Nov. 9) at 2 p.m. ET.
Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.