Lando Norris Leads McLaren to Victory in São Paulo
Lando Norris kept his head while the sky fell in São Paulo, guiding McLaren to its first win in three months on a day when Mercedes wrapped up the Formula 1 constructors’ title without a single driver on the podium.
It was anything but straightforward.
Antonelli’s lightning start, Norris on the back foot
When the lights went out, Norris’s pole advantage vanished almost instantly. Kimi Antonelli launched his Mercedes superbly, blasting past the McLaren on the run to Turn 1. Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls then pounced as well, shuffling Norris down to third before the first lap had truly settled.
Norris hit back quickly. He reclaimed second from Lawson, but by then Antonelli had bolted, carving out clear air as the field tiptoed around on intermediates and waited for the crucial crossover to slicks.
That call would decide the race.
McLaren nails the stop, Antonelli’s race unravels
McLaren blinked first. Norris dived in for slicks a lap earlier than Antonelli, and the undercut bit hard. As Norris lit up his new tyres, the Mercedes that had looked untouchable suddenly had a bright papaya car looming in its mirrors on the timing screens.
Antonelli’s problems were only just beginning.
Struggling to bring his softs to life, he lost the rear at Turn 1 on his second lap out of the pits, spinning away the lead and handing Norris clean air and control of the race. From that moment, the Italian rookie’s afternoon spiralled. The Red Bulls of Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen picked him off, and Antonelli reported that the car was “steering by itself”, especially through the left-handers.
The early swagger was gone. Norris was long gone.
Norris in command as rain returns
Once in front, Norris never looked like giving it back. Lap after lap he stretched the gap, managing the tyres, the pace, and then, late on, the weather.
A fresh shower swept over Interlagos in the closing stages, forcing a second switch from slicks back to intermediates. It could have been a twist. It barely registered. Norris’s advantage was so secure that even the rain couldn’t prise open the door for those behind.
He crossed the line unchallenged to claim his and McLaren’s first victory since Zandvoort in late August, a timely reminder of the team’s mid-season resurgence.
Behind him, Verstappen completed a bruising, brilliant recovery drive. Starting 21st on the grid, he carved through the pack, gaining 10 places in the opening laps alone, and eventually finished second. Hadjar backed him up in third to lock in a double Red Bull presence on the podium.
Mercedes crowned on a day of damage limitation
The silverware that mattered most for Mercedes, though, came from the numbers, not the celebrations on the rostrum.
George Russell and Antonelli spent much of their races wrestling with wayward cars and changing conditions, yet Russell emerged ahead of his young team-mate for the first time since Baku in September. It was messy at times: Russell spun in the pitlane during his change from intermediates to slicks, but Mercedes then rolled the dice on strategy.
While most of the field needed two stints on slicks before the final return to inters, Russell ran just one, clawing back the time he had thrown away and positioning himself to attack late. Even as he reported balance issues of his own, he reeled in and passed Antonelli.
Fourth and fifth at the flag were hardly the fireworks of a title coronation, but they were enough. With Ferrari stumbling through a difficult afternoon, Mercedes sealed its first constructors’ crown since 2021, and did it with three races still to run.
Hamilton charges, then fades
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Lewis Hamilton produced one of the most eye-catching opening laps of the day. From 20th on the grid, he surged to ninth in a single tour, slicing through the spray with trademark aggression.
The charge didn’t last.
Hamilton began to suffer on his intermediates, sliding backwards and even losing out to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin Honda. He tried to reset the race by gambling early on slicks, and initially it worked, bringing him back into contention.
Then came another mistake. A spin just before his final stop for intermediates cost him dearly, dropping him into the midfield fight he thought he had escaped. He recovered to ninth at the flag, tucked in behind Lawson and Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.
McLaren split, Audi snatches a point
For McLaren, the day was a study in contrasts. While Norris disappeared up the road, Oscar Piastri never featured in the victory conversation. He trailed home 56.4 seconds behind his team-mate in sixth, solid points but a stark measure of Norris’s dominance.
The final point went to Nico Hulkenberg, who dragged his Audi to 10th despite a 10-second time penalty. He had gone off at Turn 1 while scrapping with Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, but still salvaged a reward for Audi’s persistence in a chaotic race.
Norris stood atop the podium as the rain eased, McLaren back in the winner’s circle, Mercedes crowned champions again, and the rest left to wonder: with three rounds left, who can still bend this season to their will?
