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Lando Norris struck a major blow in the 2025 Formula 1 title race by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix, as Oscar Piastri was penalised for causing an accident while Max Verstappen charged to the podium from a pitlane start.
A mix of strategies and tyre choices plus Verstappen’s heroics made this an absolute classic of an F1 race, also helped by Piastri getting a 10-second penalty for crashing into Kimi Antonelli, who still ended up finishing second!
The pivotal moment for Piastri was diving inside Antonelli's Mercedes at Turn 1 in a three-car battle with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari following a safety car restart (caused by Gabriel Bortoleto crashing out of his home race battling Lance Stroll's Aston Martin).
Piastri locked up and hit Antonelli who slewed into Leclerc and, while Antonelli could continue, Leclerc lost his front-left tyre and had to retire.
The stewards - harshly perhaps - gave Piastri the blame for the incident and a 10-second penalty to boot.
Attention then switched to Verstappen. After his pitlane start, he’d taken just a couple of racing laps to get up to 13th, and then had to pit under the VSC caused by Leclerc’s stoppage with his own puncture, dropping him to the back of the pack.
On fresh mediums Verstappen drove through the field and into the top five.
With the McLarens committed to two-stop strategies, finishing on the mediums, it looked like Verstappen might try to make it to the end on a much older set of mediums, but with a fresh set of softs sat waiting, he dived into the pits with 16 laps to go.
He emerged ahead of Piastri - hampered by that 10-second penalty - and sat in fourth with a 14-second gap to erode to leader, Norris. Verstappen was soon flying, set the fastest lap of the race and began to reel in Norris and the two Mercedes ahead.
With eight laps to go Verstappen dived around the outside of George Russell at Turn 1 and had a 2.5-second gap to Antonelli in second, but while he did reach Antonelli, Verstappen's comeback stalled as those soft tyres began to give up grip.
It was still one of the best Formula 1 comebacks in recent memory, coming only one year after Verstappen won this race from 17th on the grid in the wet.
Antonelli deserves plaudits too for holding off the four-time champion, taking his best F1 result in the process.
And it was excellent damage limitation from Verstappen, who said his championship hopes were over yesterday after a nightmare qualifying and here he was, 24 hours later, on the podium.
Unlike Verstappen, Piastri could not pass Russell and had to settle for fifth, losing more points to Norris - who took his seventh win of the year in an excellent weekend - and Verstappen.
Norris leads Piastri by 24 points now, while Verstappen is 49 behind Norris.
Ollie Bearman was sixth for Haas in a combative drive, well clear at the lead of the midfield ahead of Liam Lawson, and sixth for a second race in a row.
Lawson led a train of seven cars over the finish line. His Racing Bulls team-mate Hadjar passed Nico Hulkenberg for eighth on the last lap, while Hulkenberg completed a whopping 33-lap stint on the softs to take ninth, ahead of Pierre Gasly scoring Alpine a well-earned point.
It was a nightmare day for Ferrari, again. Lewis Hamilton started 14th, banged wheels with Carlos Sainz around the outside of Turn 1, then hit the back of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, which disintegrated Hamilton's front wing and obliterated Hamilton's floor. He retired just after halfway.
Added to Leclerc’s DNF, it was also incredibly costly in the constructors’ championship, too. It means Red Bull has now jumped Ferrari for third place.
Results
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +10.3s
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +10.7s
- George Russell (Mercedes) +15.2s
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +15.7s
- Ollie Bearman (Haas) +29.6s
- Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +52.6s
- Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +52.8s
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +53.3s
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +53.9s
- Alex Albon (Williams) +54.1s
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) +54.6s
- Carlos Sainz (Williams) +55.4s
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +55.7s
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +57.7s
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +58.2s
- Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +69.1s
DNF: Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
