Smashed It In São Paulo: Norris Triumphs In The Rain

McLaren’s Lando Norris dominated the 2026 São Paulo Grand Prix, converting pole position into victory, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stormed from the back of the grid to the podium, with teammate Isack Hadjar in third. 

Feature image credit: Getty Images // Red Bull Content Pool

While Lando Norris achieved back-to-back race victories from pole position in challenging conditions around the Interlagos circuit, the race itself was not as straightforward for the McLaren driver.

Norris Loses the Lead

During the opening lap, Norris lost the lead to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli down to Turn 1, and while his intermediate tyres were still warming up to the damp track conditions, Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls saw an opportunity and got the overtake done, dropping the pole sitter to third.

But that move did not last too long for Lawson. Once Norris had got into the groove, and Lawson’s tyres started to lose grip, the Brit reclaimed his position ahead of the Racing Bulls and set his sights on Antonelli ahead.

Verstappen’s Charge

Further down the road, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who started the race at the back of the grid in twenty-first, made his way up into the points-paying positions before we were even 10 laps in.

While Verstappen was flying out on track, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who started the race one place above the Red Bull driver in twentieth, seemed to struggle on his inters as the track started to form a dry line, resulting in the seven-time world champion becoming the first driver to pull the trigger and box for slick tyres.

This then created a domino effect where the pit lane became busy as every driver pulled in to swap tyres.

Lando Norris claims dramatic wet pole for Sao Paulo Grand Prix

The Mercedes Duo Go Spinning

As the drivers made their way out of the pit lane carefully and slowly, with the pit exit being damper than the rest of the track, Mercedes’ George Russell spun. With Lawson and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri making their way out of the pits, Russell was forced to wait for them to exit before he could reposition his Mercedes and rejoin the race.

With his car facing in the wrong direction, Russell had to correct his position and somehow narrowly avoided brushing the side of his Mercedes against the pit wall and any form of front-wing damage.

For his teammate Antonelli, who maintained the race lead after making his first pit stop, the spin came for him on lap 20 heading down towards Turn 1, with Norris picking up the pieces and returning to the lead of the race. Antonelli took to the radio to say that he felt that something was off with the car, with potential suspension issues.

However, it was just the Mercedes struggling to get the soft tyres up to temperature.

Red Bull’s Double Podium

With the world champion struggling to cycle some heat into his tyres, the move was on for Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who closed in on the back of the Mercedes by the end of lap 20, and by the start of lap 21, Hadjar breezed past Antonelli to claim second place.

Just a couple of laps later, Antonelli continued to struggle, went off track again down at Turn 1, allowing Verstappen to easily overtake him for the final podium place.

On lap 38, the team issued team orders for Hadjar to let Verstappen through so he could chase down Norris and fight for the victory, who was 8 seconds clear out front.

Lando Norris claims Sao Paulo Grand Prix win as Mercedes take title

Norris Reigns in the Rain

With just over 10 laps to go, the rain began to fall. While Verstappen was on the hunt for victory, Norris seemed to be picking up the pace in these tricky conditions, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. He was thriving out there.

By lap 63, all cars entered the pit lane once more to switch to a fresh set of the green-banded intermediate tyres. With the rain getting heavier, and Hamilton still out on his soft tyres, while making his way to the pit entry, car 44 spun around and lightly clipped the rear wing on the wall. Luckily, he narrowly avoided any kind of race-ending damage and was able to continue.

As we reached lap 71, Verstappen was no match for Norris, who claimed the victory by 14.602 seconds. While the race win was not there for the Red Bull driver, Verstappen came home in second after starting from the back row of the grid. His teammate, Isack Hadjar, claimed the final step on the podium after showing mega pace out on track, to make it a double podium for the team.

The Midfield

Despite his spin on pit lane exit, Russell finished fourth, ahead of Antonelli in fifth, as Mercedes’ team orders were put in place. Antonelli was handed a 5-second time penalty post-race for an unsafe release in the pit lane, as the Mercedes team sent him out in the path of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine. The Mercedes driver was far enough ahead of Piastri to maintain the position. Piastri had to settle for sixth.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made up places: from fourteenth on the starting grid, due to an engine penalty, to seventh by the chequered flag. Lawson finished just behind in eighth. But, with a post-race 5-second penalty for Leclerc for causing a collision with Lawson when overtaking during the final laps, the pair switched places, with Lawson reclaiming seventh.

Hamilton came home in ninth and was lapped by the race winner, and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg claimed the final point in tenth after starting the race on the second row in fourth. Despite receiving a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Hulkenberg held off Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls, who finished just shy of the points in eleventh.

Brazil’s Home Heroes

The two home heroes, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas’ Rafael Camara, who made his F1 debut in place of Esteban Ocon, finished sixteenth and twentieth, respectively.

Although Camara took the chequered flag last and two laps down, his debut was successful as he leaves Brazil having gained experience for next year and stayed on track in challenging conditions.

 

A Dramatic Podium Celebration

While there was plenty of drama on track, for Norris, the drama came for him off track and during his winning celebrations. When performing his iconic champagne spike, the champagne bottle smashed into pieces, leaving Norris with just the bottle neck in his hand. In complete shock, the McLaren driver took a step back and walked straight into one of the celebratory sparklers, which skimmed the side of his face. Nonetheless, Norris leaves Brazil with his 20th pole position and 50th podium.

Up Next

As we say goodbye to one triple header, we begin to prepare for the final triple header in just under two weeks’ time, where we go racing on the streets of Vegas, the desert of Qatar, and the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Can McLaren put up a fight to Red Bull for third in the Constructors’ Championship? Find out when the five red lights go out on Sunday, November 22nd, or Saturday night, Vegas time.

The Full Race Classification

1 – Lando Norris, McLaren

2 – Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

3 – Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing

4 – George Russell, Mercedes

5 – Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

6 – Oscar Piastri, McLaren

7 – Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

8 – Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

9 – Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, +1 Lap

10 – Nico Hulkenberg, Audi, +1 Lap

11 – Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, +1 Lap

12 – Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, +1 Lap

13 – Franco Colapinto, Alpine, +1 Lap

14 – Pierre Gasly, Alpine, +1 Lap

15 – Alexander Albon, Williams, +1 Lap

16 – Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi, +1 Lap

17 – Oliver Bearman, Haas, +1 Lap

18 – Sergio Perez, Cadillac, +2 Lap

19 – Carlos Sainz, Williams, +2 Lap

20 – Rafael Camara, Haas, +2 Laps

NC – Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, DNF

NC – Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac, DNS

Read more Formula 1 here: