Lando Norris controlled Sunday’s (Nov. 9) Sao Paulo Grand Prix from lights out to the checkered flag to take the 10th win of his career and his seventh of the 2025 season. He now leads his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by 24 points with three races remaining in the season.
Kimi Antonelli finished second to claim the best result of his F1 career to date with Max Verstappen finishing third after starting the race from the pit lane.
“An amazing race,” Norris told Sky Sports’ Jolyon Palmer after the race. “It’s nice to win here in Brazil. It’s an amazing track, amazing fans. This one is for Gil [de Ferran], one of my mentors growing up, a couple years ago. This one was for him. I’m sure he’d be very proud about it all. I was thinking of that while driving.”
Antonelli’s result brought him to 122 points for the year, breaking Lewis Hamilton‘s 18-year old record for most points scored by a rookie. Antonelli sits seventh in the standings, 26 points behind Hamilton.
George Russell finished fourth, ahead of Piastri, whose race was derailed by a controversial time-penalty assessed to the Australian following a collision with Antonelli early in the race.
Things began going wrong for Piastri on lap 6, when the first Safety Car of the day, brought out by Gabriel Bortoleto, was lifted and the field charged toward turn 1. Both Piastri and Charles Leclerc got strong runs on second-placed Antonelli and headed toward the first turn three-wide with the Italian in the middle.
Leclerc ran wide, but Antonelli and Piastri came together as Piastri was firmly alongside the Mercedes when Antonelli turned toward the apex. Piastri locked his brakes in an attempt to avoid a collision, but the resulting contact sent Antonelli’s car bouncing into Leclerc which dealt terminal damage to the Ferrari’s suspension.
Piastri was later issued a 10-second time penalty for the incident, which the commentary team disapproved of.
Meanwhile, Verstappen had climbed to 13th after starting from the pits before a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was brought out so marshals could remove Leclerc’s damaged Ferrari from the run-off area at the entrance of turn 4. The Dutchman pitted for medium tires under the VSC and rejoined the track in 18th place.
Verstappen squeezed every ounce of pace out of each set of tires through the race to drive to the podium and erase any lingering frustration stemming from his shocking Q1 elimination during Saturday qualifying.
Fortunes on the other side of the Red Bull garage, however, could not have been any more different. Tsunoda was assessed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Lance Stroll on lap 6 after the two collided in turn 8.
Stroll was sent spinning after Tsunoda overcooked his entry into the turn and slid into the back of the Aston Martin. Later, a crew member appeared to touch the Red Bull before it had served its entire 10-second penalty. As teams are required to serve the penalty by leaving the car stationary for 10 seconds before servicing it in a pit stop, this led to another 10-second penalty being issued.
It wasn’t the first collision of the day for Stroll, as the Canadian had been the other party in Bortoleto’s first-lap crash by pushing the Brazilian wide and into a spin at the entrance of turn 10.
Seven-time World Champion and honorary Brazilian citizen Hamilton had a horrid day at Interlagos and retired his Ferrari on lap 40. Hamilton had picked up floor damage early in the race and struggled with handling issues the entire day. Hamilton is still without a podium for 2025 and, unless he finishes third or better in on of the final three races, is facing a failure to score at least one podium per season for the first time in his F1 career.
2025 F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Results
Next on the F1 schedule is the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Coverage from Sin City will begin Saturday, Nov. 22, at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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.