Norris Dominates 2025 Sao Paulo Sprint

Lando Norris extended his title lead with a dominant victory at the 2025 Sao Paulo Sprint.

Norris led from lights to flag in a sprint which was disrupted by a red flag on lap seven after his teammate and title rival, Oscar Piastri spun out on lap 6 along with Franco Colapinto after the pair hit a wet patch through the Senna S.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli fought off George Russell for second as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top eight finishers.

In the drivers’ standings, Norris extended his title lead to nine points over Piastri, whilst Verstappen’s gap grew to 39 points.

At lights out, Norris led Antonelli, Piastri and Russell away as Verstappen cleared Alonso for fifth whilst Liam Lawson down the order spun Oliver Bearman through turn 4.

Norris subsequently proceeded to build a gap of over one second by lap 6 when he ran marginally wide through the Senna S onto the kerb, which displaced water onto the track and sent Piastri, Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto helplessly spinning out when they came across the wet patch.

Stewards a lap later threw a red flag to allow for track repairs and safe removal of Piastri and Colapinto’s cars, whilst Hulkenberg recovered to the pit lane for repairs.

Racing resumed 23 minutes later as Antonelli, Russell, Verstappen and Leclerc switched to medium tyres, whilst Gasly switched onto the soft tyre in a gamble.

On the rolling start, Norris scurried away from Antonelli as those on fresh medium tyres struggled to warm their tyres up to temperature as Verstappen desperately fought off Alonso to protect his fourth place.

Norris eventually claimed his second sprint victory of the season after late pressure from Antonelli and Russell as his soft tyres hit the cliff, which led the Brit to mount a resilient defence in the closing laps against the Italian rookie.

Verstappen settled for fourth whilst Leclerc cleared Alonso on lap 22 into turn 4 for fifth to finish ahead of the Spaniard, Hamilton and Gasly.

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a loss of rear brakes as he approached the Senna S on the final lap and was launched airborne, with the hometown hero a doubt for Qualifying at 3pm local time (6pm GMT) due to the heavy damage to his car.