Lando Norris took revenge in Brazil and took a step towards the title

A year after losing his chances of fighting for the title last season, the Englishman dealt an almost definitive blow for the 2025 World Cup after a crushing victory. Max Verstappen was third and Oscar Piastri, fifth.

The San Pablo Grand Prix once again dealt a blow to a Formula 1 season. A year ago, an impetuous Lando Norris was struggling to try to discount the difference that Max Verstappen had made at the start of the season, but under the São Paulo deluge, the Dutchman signed an unforgettable victory from 17th starting place and the Englishman from McLaren raised the flag of surrender. The Briton endured, recovered and a season later achieved a crushing victory that left him with the title almost in his pocket.

Norris dominated the entire São Paulo weekend and has been ahead for two races in a row in each outing. He had done it in Mexico and repeated it in Brazil, with the addition that in San Pablo there was a sprint and he also dominated the qualy for the short race and the competition on Saturday. Only a very strong drop in his performance could take the title away from him, because he left Brazil with 24 points ahead of Oscar Piastri and 49 against Max Verstappen, with 83 points left in dispute in three races.

The big doubt surrounding Sunday in São Paulo was the weather. During the morning, the drizzle appeared all the time and that generated some uncertainty. Finally, everything was dry and strategies came into play. Hard, medium, soft, which tire to use? Norris started on medium, had a stint in the medium on soft and returned to medium for the finish. And he was always in a good rhythm. The positive thing he experienced from the start was that his teammate Oscar Piastri, the main rival for the title, eliminated himself from the fight for victory.

The chaotic first round left people injured and beaten. Lewis Hamilton ended up with a broken wing after hitting Franco Colapinto and Gabriel Bortoleto ended up with his Sauber crashed into the wall. The safety car had to go out on the track and in the relaunch, Piastri tried a maneuver that did not end well. He got inside Kimi Antonelli (the second) and Charles Leclerc was traveling on the outside. The Australian blocked and hit the Italian from Mercedes with a lateral bump, who closed the carom with an impact on the Ferrari. The Monegasque had to abandon and the result: a ten-second penalty for Piastri.

All the conductive and mental firmness that Piastri had shown during 15 races collapsed like a house of cards. Two hits in Baku, bad rhythm in Austin and Mexico and in San Pablo, hit in the sprint and penalized maneuver in the race. He was only eliminated from the fight, although he still has a chance. Andrea Stella, director of McLaren, pointed out that Oscar suffers on tracks with little grip and that he is learning from that, but the 2025 title chance seems to have vanished.

Max Verstappen then appeared on the scene. But the poor set-up chosen by Red Bull for the Brazilian weekend condemned the four-time champion. It was so bad that it was left out of the classification in Q1 and the team chose to break the parc ferme and change the entire RB21 (new engine, another floor, tuning modification). The Dutchman was the one who put on a show and came from the pit lane to the podium. For the applause. But it is hardly enough to turn the fight for 1 around.

“McLaren is doing an incredible job and giving me a fantastic car. We push ourselves as hard as possible every weekend and I also push myself hard off the track. So it’s rewarding, it’s not easy. To be honest, I don’t think we were the fastest on the track today, so I’m glad to take the win,” Norris said after his win.

Already in the press conference room, located on the ground floor and quite far away, the Englishman opted for restraint. “I will try to win and score points in what is missing, it is what I need and look for every weekend and race. I do not feel more confident after this weekend. In fact, Max was very fast this weekend and we were not the fastest. “There’s not much of a way to go, but it can change very quickly, as we’ve seen today, so I focus on myself, keep my head down, ignore everyone and move on.”

Six Formula 1 championships were defined in Interlagos in the history of the category. Fernando Alonso (in his two titles), Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton (in 2008), Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel (2012) all won here. But on other occasions the tournaments went permanently wrong and took an irreversible trend, as happened in 2024 and as it seems to have happened in 2025. Norris, this time, is on the winning side.