Lando Norris extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship with a ruthless performance in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but it wasn’t so good for his rivals \u2013 including McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri. Lawrence Barretto selects his winners and losers from Interlagos.<\/p>\n
Winner: Lando Norris<\/p>\n
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend was close to perfection for Lando Norris<\/a>, who led practice, took Sprint pole, won the Sprint, took Grand Prix pole and won the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n It was his second consecutive win from pole position and seventh Grand Prix victory of the season, tying Piastri’s tally for the year.<\/p>\n Since his mechanical DNF in the Netherlands seven races ago, Norris has beaten Piastri in every single race weekend.<\/p>\n Having arrived at Interlagos leading the championship by just one point, Norris leaves 24 clear of Piastri<\/a> with just three Grand Prix weekends to go.<\/p>\n Loser: Oscar Piastri<\/p>\n This was another frustrating weekend for Piastri<\/a>, who lost yet more ground to team mate Norris in the championship fight.<\/p>\n The Australian was unlucky to get caught out by a puddle in a kerb in the Sprint, which triggered his crash<\/a> and that pain was compounded when he was handed a 10-second penalty for a collision with Kimi Antonelli when fighting for P2<\/a> in the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n He saw the chequered flag in fifth for the third Grand Prix on the bounce, extending his run without a podium to five \u2013 and trails Norris by 24 points<\/a>, which is his biggest deficit all season.<\/p>\n Winner: Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n Kimi Antonelli’s race could have been over when contact with Piastri speared him into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc<\/a> \u2013 but he survived to fight on and from there delivered the strongest race of his short career so far to take a best-ever second.<\/p>\n He absorbed the pressure from a very fast Max Verstappen<\/a> in the final stages to secure a second successive P2 finish in as many days, following an impressive Sprint performance.<\/p>\n With team mate George Russell taking fourth place \u2013 and P3 in the Sprint \u2013 Mercedes went from one point behind Ferrari in the Teams’ Championship<\/a> to 36 points clear in P2.<\/p>\n Losers: Ferrari<\/p>\n While rivals Mercedes starred, Ferrari<\/a> toiled in Interlagos, with the team suffering their third point-less Grand Prix weekend of the season.<\/p>\n Leclerc was a victim of the Piastri-Antonelli collision, the Monegasque retiring immediately after his Ferrari was struck.<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton<\/a> made contact with Franco Colapinto which broke his front wing and triggered a five-second time penalty before he later retired the car.<\/p>\n It was a painful weekend for a team that arrived in the country placed second in the Teams’ Championship<\/a> but left in fourth, with Red Bull also jumping them.<\/p>\n Winner: Max Verstappen<\/p>\n Max Verstappen will leave Brazil thinking what might have been despite a heroic drive from the pit lane to the podium, as he finished third in the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n The reigning four-time World Champion failed to progress beyond Q1 on pure pace for the first time in his career as Red Bull struggled to get the ideal set-up.<\/p>\n But following huge changes overnight, which triggered a pit lane start, Verstappen came alive in the race \u2013 and at one point looked like he might even win.<\/p>\n It was only the eighth time that a driver starting from the pit lane has made the podium \u2013 and the first since Hamilton achieved the feat in 2014.<\/p>\n The downside, of course, is that Verstappen now heads to Vegas further behind the Championship lead (he trails Norris by 49) \u2013 but there is no doubt he is driving at his peak.<\/p>\n Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto<\/p>\n This wasn’t the home Grand Prix weekend that Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> would have hoped for.<\/p>\n The Brazilian had a huge crash at the end of the Sprint, and while he was unscathed, his car was so damaged his Kick Sauber team couldn’t get it ready in time for Qualifying.<\/p>\n His Grand Prix didn’t last very long either as a clash with Lance Stroll<\/a> ended his participation with the race not even a lap old.<\/p>\n Winner: Ollie Bearman<\/p>\n Ollie Bearman<\/a> is going from strength to strength in Formula 1, with the Briton delivering another sensational drive to secure back-to-back top-six finishes.<\/p>\n The Haas driver delivered some superb overtakes and utilised the pace of his VF-25<\/a> to give the team their best-ever finish at Interlagos.<\/p>\n It moved him into P11 in the Drivers’ Championship \u2013 while Haas are now just two points behind seventh-placed Aston in the Teams’ Championship.<\/p>\n Losers: Aston Martin<\/p>\n The weekend started so brightly when Aston Martin<\/a> got two cars into the top eight in Sprint Qualifying, with Fernando Alonso converting the strong start to take sixth.<\/p>\n They couldn’t carry that performance into Qualifying for the Grand Prix though, with both missing out on Q3.<\/p>\n In the Grand Prix, Alonso’s decision to start on the hard tyre cost him, while Stroll was unlucky to be the victim of contact with Bortoleto and Yuki Tsunoda \u2013 and thus they ended up with nothing.<\/p>\n Winners: Racing Bulls<\/p>\n Racing Bulls had gone three race weekends without a point heading to Brazil, but they managed to covert their strong midfield pace at Interlagos.<\/p>\n Liam Lawson<\/a> was a super seventh after a monster 52-lap stint on the mediums as part of a one-stopper, with Isack Hadjar<\/a> taking eighth.<\/p>\n The double score pushes them 10 points clear of Aston Martin in the fight for P6 in the Teams’ Championship, with Lawson and Hadjar’s strong showing coming at the right time as Red Bull and Racing Bulls weigh up their respective 2026 driver line-ups.<\/p>\n Losers: Williams<\/p>\n In the words of Williams boss James Vowles, this was a “race that had so much promise but did not deliver results”.<\/p>\n