Norris Domination, Mad Max Revival: Lando Norris goes full steam ahead in the Drivers Championship after a jam-packed weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix
Updated: May 2
Who would have thought that Lando Norris, who was thirty points behind Oscar Piastri after his devastating DNF in the Dutch Grand Prix, that he would now be twenty-four points clear of his teammate, leading the Driver’s Championship? As Piastri’s form continues to falter, Lando Norris capitalises on his rival’s setbacks, outpacing the entire grid the entire Grand Prix Weekend in Sao Paulo.
Friday at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace circuit started off with the single practice race, which led Lando Norris to sit in top position, which he never faltered from all weekend, Oscar Piastri tight on his tail. Sprint Qualifying followed later in the evening, where we saw not only Lando Norris qualify on pole, but right behind him followed Rookie Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who scored an impressive lap time of 1:09.340. Piastri just fell short of the front row, accompanied by George Russel right next to him. While the Ferraris fail to find pace, Aston Martin’s drivers Alonso and Stroll found themselves in P5 and P7, Leclerc, Hadjar and Hulkenberg finishing up the top 10 ahead of the Sprint.
Saturday saw carnage in the Sao Paulo Sprint race for many drivers. While Lando Norris held position after his great qualifying session the night before, just a few laps in he caught the kerb slightly, where water was splashed onto the track slightly, catching Piastri off guard into turn 3, sending him into the barriers and out of the race so soon, destroying any chance of him getting points to catch his rival who sat in 1st place. The domino effect of the crash also took Hulkenberg for a spin and took Colapinto out of the race too, leading to a red flag being shown while all the cars and debris were cleared. Hulkenberg was able to get back into the race, but his spin ruined any chances of being in contention for points.
The race headed on again smoothly, Lando Norris being chased by the young and hungry Italian driver, narrowing the gap to the Championship leader in every lap. Reaching the climax of the race just when a battle was to occur between Norris and Antonelli came a devastating crash from Gabriel Bortolleto, out of his home sprint race. The long double-yellow flags meant Lando Norris managed to keep Antonelli at bay on his deteriorating soft tires, the gap between them just 0.845 seconds. The front three was rounded out by George Russel, who avoided the chaos and snuck his way into a podium finish, Mercedes extending their Constructor’s Championship gap from Ferrari.
Saturday evening at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace circuit saw more shock and upset for various teams going into qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Q1 saw a massive shock in Max Verstappen only managing to qualify sixteenth due to various issues with the car including instability, causing his first Q1 exit since Russia 2021. His father was pictured in the garage promptly leaving, Max expressing his concerns ahead of the Grand Prix:
“The whole weekend has already been quite tough but this is a bit unexpected, I would say, after changing quite a bit on the car.“It was just not responding. I had no grip out there so I had to really massively underdrive it basically. It just didn’t work.”
Lewis Hamilton was struggling for the pace, once again his Ferrari would be on the backburner for the Grand Prix, this weekend just not being one of their weekends.
Q3 saw the appearance of some unexpected drivers. Lando Norris once again fronted the pack, putting in yet another great performance, lining himself up for a solid victory in Sunday’s race. Charles Leclerc put in a stunning lap time landing himself in second, closing into the last few seconds of the session. However, just as he had done the day before, Kimi Antonelli took everyone by surprise, his flying lap landing him back again on the front row, knocking Leclerc back and once again joins Lando Norris on the front row. The rest of the grid was occupied by the other high performing rookies Ollie Bearman and Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson also bringing the Racing Bulls up to P5 and P7. Pierre Gasly and Niko Hulkenberg round off the top 10, looking forward to Sunday’s race, which could have brought about a stunning revival of Mad Max, where he won from seventeenth last year.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix started with a bang, being quickly interrupted by poor Gabriel Bortolleto crashing yet again due to Stroll pumping him into the barriers, sadly ending any chances of even racing at his home Grand Prix. Tears were shed by the young rookie, whose family had come to support and cheer him on. He was not the only one to suffer in the beginning. After a very rough qualifying, Lewis Hamilton was hit front to back, firstly by Carlos Sainz which sent him to the back of the grid, and then miscalculating an overtake on the Alpine in front of him causing him to lose his front wing and damage his floor. This basically determined his race to be over, unable to recover from the damages later on in the Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen made some alterations to his car, including changing his engine, so he started the Grand Prix in the pitlane. He did however, make up some very quick places, already moving up from P19 to P16 before the crash. As the race then restarted, Lando Norris sped ahead, surprising Antonelli and the pair behind, all three of them flying into the first corner abreast, leading to Piastri to hit Antonelli, spinning him into Charles Leclerc.
His front tyre went flying and that was his race over, another DNF in the last seven races, this one being completely out of control. Piastri’s reckless driving had him slammed with a ten-second penalty, his chances at a podium finish slipping away. During the chaos, Max Verstappen had made up places to P13 but pitted to mediums due to a puncture, which served him well as the hard tyre was not suiting anyone.
The race after the second restart was nothing short of ordinary, apart from Max Verstappen storming the grid, overtake after overtake. He had made his way up to P3, with nothing to lose going into his race, chasing Antonelli for P2 and then it would be Norris for the win. He quickly closed the gap on him in lap 67/71. Still, Kimi Antonelli defended against the four-time World Champion like his life depended on it, scoring his best ever Formula 1 finish, with Lando Norris winning the Grand Prix yet again with a ten-second lead on the Mercedes driver.
Piastri just was not able to make up the places, finishing P5, followed by an impressive P6 by Bearman yet again. Racing Bulls scored points in P7 and P8 for Hadjar and Lawson, the top ten finished off by Hulkenberg and Gasly, bringing up his tally to 22 points for Alpine and Hulkenberg having some redemption after Saturday’s Sprint race.
As well as Max Verstappen drove, Lando Norris is forty-nine points clear of him at the top of the Driver’s Championship, almost making his title contentions over. The gap on Piastri to Norris is ever widening, now at twenty-four points. From his bad run of form since his Crash at Monaco, Oscar Piastri’s title chances seem to be getting slimmer by each passing race.
Lando Norris still believes that Max Verstappen should not be counted out of the running just yet:
Norris said: “I’m sure Max is going to be a threat in terms of races, and you never know with the championship. So, it’s pointless trying to guess and come up with these things.“With how quick he was, he would have won if he started higher up. But that’s racing. Not everyone puts it together, and it’s easy to make mistakes in the world that we live in.“Max will be a threat because he always is. He’s always there, he’s always fighting, and I’m sure he’ll fight to the end. I look forward to it.”
He is yet to say that he will be World Champion as of yet, even saying that he cannot get “too excited” – anything can happen in Formula 1. He also said this following a review of the race itself:
“To be honest, I didn’t think we were the quickest out there on track today so I’m glad to take home the win,” Norris said.“It’s a great win but to be honest seeing how quick Max was today, I’m pretty disappointed we weren’t quicker.”Asked about the championship, he added: “There’s not a long way to go but it can change so quickly like we’ve seen today, so just focus on myself, keep my head down, ignore everyone and keep pushing.”
Looking ahead to the last three races of the season we are in for a treat. With Las Vegas fast approaching, and the beginning of a triple header into the closing of the 2025 season, the grand finale of the Driver’s Championship is approaching its climax. Fans are steadily anticipating the lights and glamour of the Las Vegas Grand Prix in two weeks time.
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