Norris wins Sao Paulo Sprint as Piastri crashes out

Lando Norris has taken victory in an action-packed Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the McLaren driver holding off Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli amid changing conditions in an event that saw the other papaya car of Oscar Piastri crash out early on.

While the Sprint got off to a relatively calm start – with Norris leading smoothly away from pole – the picture changed within a few laps when Piastri hit the barriers after getting on the damp kerbs at Turn 3, with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto subsequently going off at the same corner moments later.

The Sprint was subsequently red-flagged as the damage was cleared, but Norris again held the lead when the event resumed shortly afterwards. That position looked in doubt during the final laps, however, as the Briton struggled with his rear soft tyres and found himself under increasing pressure from Antonelli.

With the event ending under double yellow flags following a heavy crash for Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Norris ultimately held off Antonelli to take the win, the championship leader doing so with a margin of just 0.845s.

George Russell added to a solid outing for Mercedes in third, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took some valuable points in fourth should he hope to keep his title bid alive. Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari after a late pass on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, with the other Scuderia car of Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly following in seventh and eighth places.

With one only hour of practice taking place on Friday, a busy Sprint Qualifying session later in the day had seen Norris claim pole position for the 100-kilometre dash, a format that awards points to the top eight finishers from a maximum of eight for P1 down to one for P8.

The Briton’s closest challenger was Antonelli, whose own effort was just 0.097s adrift of Norris’ pace-setting time of 1m 09.243s. Behind them were the other respective McLaren and Mercedes cars of Piastri and Russell in third and fourth.

It was a tricker session for title contender Verstappen, who shook his head in disappointment after crossing the line in sixth, while both Ferraris also appeared to be struggling for pace as Leclerc and Hamilton claimed eighth and 11th places.

Despite a potentially mixed weather forecast for Saturday, showers that had fallen earlier on had faded as the drivers started to assemble at Interlagos for the Sprint, though parts of the track still appeared damp.

It was confirmed in the build-up to the event that both Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz – who had qualified in 18th and 20th respectively – would start from the pit lane due to modifications being made to their cars under parc ferme conditions, that being a set-up and front wing/nose assembly change for Tsunoda and a set-up change for Sainz.

While questions remained in the build-up over whether slick or intermediate tyres would be the preference owing to the damp patches on track – and with a 30% chance of rain during the Sprint – it was confirmed when the tyre blankets were removed that the majority of the field had bolted on the medium compound, while Antonelli, Russell, Verstappen, Leclerc, Isack Hadjar and Alex Albon were the exceptions on the soft tyres.

As the lights went out for the 24-lap event, Norris made an excellent start to surge ahead in the lead, while Antonelli faced pressure from Piastri but managed to hold onto second. Behind them, Verstappen was quick to pick off Alonso for fifth and Hamilton had also made moves, climbing up to eighth place to run behind team mate Leclerc.

Lance Stroll had lost out to drop down two positions to ninth, and further back there was contact between Ollie Bearman and Liam Lawson at Turn 4, an incident that sent the former into a spin to drop him down to P18.

Following an investigation by the stewards post-Sprint, Bearman was later handed a five-second time penalty and one penalty point for driving in a manner deemed potentially dangerous between Turns 3 and 4, while Lawson also received the same punishment for causing a collision at Turn 4.

Within four laps, Norris had stretched out a gap of nearly one and a half seconds from Antonelli, with each of the top five running in relatively clear air. The margins were much finer behind, however, as Alonso was chased by Leclerc and Hamilton.

That calm quickly unravelled with a dramatic sequence of events on Lap 6, as Piastri took too much kerb and crashed into the barriers at Turn 3. With water seemingly being dragged onto the track, Hulkenberg and Colapinto then both went off at the same corner, resulting in the Safety Car being deployed.

While Hulkenberg was able to get his Kick Sauber going again and return to the pits with a broken nosecone, Piastri and Colapinto were both out of the running – and with those cars needing to be recovered and the barriers requiring repairs, a red flag was thrown to bring the Sprint to a halt.

The remaining cars made their way back to the fast lane of the pit lane during the stoppage, before a restart time was confirmed a short while later. Kick Sauber had fixed Hulkenberg’s car in time to rejoin the Sprint, meaning that he was released onto the track to get himself to the back of the queue in the pit lane.

Ahead of a rolling start, the Safety Car led the pack out – all having changed tyres during the break – and Norris again executed a good start when the action resumed with 15 laps remaining. Behind him Russell looked to challenge Antonelli, but it was the latter who held position through Turn 1.

Alonso was also looking racy, the Aston Martin driver attempting a move on fourth-placed Verstappen before having to back off and settle for fifth. While Verstappen then started to pull away, Alonso again found himself under pressure from Leclerc behind.

As the halfway mark of the Sprint passed, Norris was leading Antonelli by 1.2s, with Russell, Verstappen, Alonso, Leclerc, Hamilton and Stroll completing the points-paying positions, though Stroll had the Alpine of Gasly hot on his tail.

Alonso – still being chased by Leclerc – was told to lift and coast by his race engineer, while further back Gasly was still looking to get ahead of Stroll for eighth. The Frenchman was still keeping an eye on what was happening ahead, reporting: “That Ferrari needs to get past Alonso.”

At the front, Norris appeared to be struggling with his rear tyres on the drying track, the Briton having switched to the soft compound during the stoppage. Could second-placed Antonelli eat further into the McLaren’s 1.1s lead?

By Lap 20, Antonelli had closed to just 0.4s behind Norris. Behind them, Leclerc finally found a way past Alonso to move up into fifth, leaving the Aston Martin to face pressure from the other Ferrari of Hamilton.

As the final lap arrived, all eyes were on Antonelli as the Italian continued his pursuit of Norris. But with a hefty crash into the barriers for home favourite Bortoleto – after which the Brazilian fortunately reported that he was okay – meaning that the Sprint ended under double yellow flags, it was Norris who took victory as the chequered flag fell, allowing him to extend his championship lead over Piastri to nine points.

Antonelli crossed the line just 0.845s behind, while the other Mercedes of Russel followed in third. Verstappen claimed fourth place, with Leclerc, Alonso, Hamilton and Gasly taking the remaining points on offer.

Stroll and Hadjar just missed out in ninth and 10th respectively, while Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Bearman were 11th and 12th, the latter holding enough of a margin from the car behind to maintain his place despite his aforementioned five-second time penalty.

While Lawson had originally followed in 13th, his five-second time penalty later dropped him to 16th, promoting Tsunoda, Sainz and Hulkenberg up by one position each with Albon completing the classification in 17th. Bortoleto, Piastri and Colapinto, meanwhile, were the three retirees from the event after their respective crashes.