Lando Norris Triumphs in Sao Paulo Despite Podium Mishap

Lando Norris’ Sao Paulo win ended in yet another podium mishap – this time with the champagne bottle paying the price.

On a drenched and chaotic afternoon at Interlagos, Norris was flawless where it really mattered. He mastered the changing conditions to take his third victory of the season, finishing 14.6 seconds clear of Max Verstappen and 24.4 ahead of Isack Hadjar. It was his 14th career win and his first since triumphing in the Netherlands back in August, a result that underlined his growing authority at the front of the grid.

Once the British national anthem had played and the trophy was safely in his hands, Norris moved into familiar territory: his trademark, exuberant podium celebration. He wound up to smash the base of the champagne bottle and pop it in style.

He overcooked it.

Instead of a clean crack and a cloud of spray, the bottle shattered against the podium surface and clattered away, leaving Norris briefly frozen, staring at the wreckage of his own enthusiasm. He took a moment, gathered himself, then resumed the celebrations with a wry smile, the showman suddenly short of his main prop.

It was not his first brush with podium chaos. After the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris’ same bottle-slamming routine went wrong in far more expensive fashion. Celebrating alongside Verstappen, he struck the bottle too close to the winner’s trophy, knocking it off the top step and sending it crashing to the ground in pieces. That clip went around the world in hours.

This time in Sao Paulo, at least, only the champagne suffered. The win stands, the trophy is intact, and Norris’ now infamous celebration has claimed its latest casualty. The question is simple: how many more podiums will it take before he retires that routine for good?