Lando Norris has struck a significant blow in the title fight. The British McLaren driver won the sprint race from pole position on Saturday in São Paulo, while his main title rival and teammate Oscar Piastri dropped out due to a mistake of his own. Max Verstappen finished fourth.
Here is a quick overview of the São Paulo GP sprint race:
The sprint race in São Paulo starts under dry conditions, but the asphalt is still quite wet from showers earlier in the morning. The start proceeds without notable incidents, apart from a contact between Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman in the rear. At the front, Lando Norris gets off well from pole and Max Verstappen gains a spot at the start from P6 at the expense of Fernando Alonso.
However, things soon go wrong. Oscar Piastri, who started from P3, slides off hard in turn 3, after pushing his car too much over the kerbs. A fraction later, Nico Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto also crash at the same point. The race direction neutralizes the race with the red flag. Particularly for Piastri, the consequences are bitter in terms of the World Championship standings. After all, he loses significant ground to McLaren teammate and World Championship leader Norris due to his own mistake. The gap between the two drivers is now nine points.
Resumption with a Rolling Start
The race resumes – unfortunately with a rolling start – and the top five are as follows: Lando Norris, Antonelli, Russell, Verstappen, and Fernando Alonso. Verstappen has swapped his soft tires for the medium compound, while Norris has chosen the opposite tire strategy. With great difficulty, Verstappen fends off a swift attack from Alonso. For the remainder of the race, he struggles to make headway against the cars ahead of him.
Norris faces little competition for a long time, but in the final stages, Antonelli catches up with the McLaren driver. However, the young Italian can’t do more than a few tentative jabs, and so Norris is the big winner of this sprint race. He pulls ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri. Verstappen manages to limit the damage somewhat by finishing in fourth place.
The race ends under a yellow flag due to a severe crash in the final lap by home driver Gabriel Bortoleto on the straightaway.
Top-10: Norris, Antonelli, Russell, Verstappen, Alonso, Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Stroll, Hadjar.
The qualifying round for the São Paulo Grand Prix is scheduled for later today.
