São Paulo 2026: Norris Wins a Race Everyone Else Got Wrong

Mercedes won the constructors' championship at Interlagos with their first podium-free race of the season. Their new drivers' champion spun out of the lead, their other driver spun in the pit lane, and the team celebrated on the podium regardless, a week after Kimi Antonelli clinched the drivers' title in Mexico. Lando Norris won the race, Max Verstappen came through from 21st on the grid to second, and Isack Hadjar finished third. In rain that came and went all afternoon, almost everyone made a mistake except the winner.

Norris called it one of the best wins of his career, and the list of ways it could have gone wrong supports that. It was his third win of 2026 and his first since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August. It was also his second consecutive victory at this circuit.

A Grid Rearranged by Penalties and Rain

Saturday set up an odd race. Norris took pole, his first since the Spanish Grand Prix in September, in a qualifying shootout in which Mercedes' miscommunication appears to have cost George Russell a pole lap he was furious to lose. Russell later said the pole was there for the taking and blamed a misjudgment of his own. Antonelli lined up alongside Norris on the front row, with Liam Lawson on the second row beside Nico Hulkenberg, both well ahead of where their cars normally sit.

The bigger story was the back of the grid. A run of engine penalties sent Verstappen to 21st and Lewis Hamilton to 20th, with Charles Leclerc also penalised, so the three biggest names in the race had everything to do before the first corner.

Norris Loses the Lead and Wins It Back

Norris did not get away well. Antonelli went around him into Turn 1, and Lawson then muscled the McLaren out of second place into Turn 2. By lap six, when Norris had recovered second with a pass on Lawson at the Bico de Pato, Antonelli was more than five seconds clear.

On a damp track the Mercedes looked comfortable. Antonelli had built a five-second lead within ten laps and stretched it past eight by lap 13, and a win at the first attempt as champion looked like a reasonable outcome.

The race turned on a strategy call. As the circuit dried, McLaren brought Norris in for slick tyres on lap 16, one lap before Mercedes did the same with Antonelli. That single lap of warm tyres cut so much time from the gap that Norris was on the Mercedes' gearbox when Antonelli rejoined.

Antonelli defended for two laps while complaining on the radio that the car felt strange under acceleration. On lap 20 he lost it on the entry to Turn 1, spun, and handed the lead to Norris. Four laps later he ran wide at the same corner and lost third place to Verstappen. Toto Wolff's working theory afterwards was a set-up or tyre pressure miscue with large consequences. Mercedes have not yet identified a firm cause.

Once in front, Norris was barely troubled. He held the gap to Verstappen at around ten seconds through the middle of the race, took a fresh set of softs on lap 50, and then switched to intermediates on lap 62 as the rain returned and grew heavier through the final ten laps. He crossed the line 14 seconds clear. In his own words he kept it cool, made no mistakes and had the pace when he needed it. McLaren's Andrea Stella has described him as a low-grip master, and mixed conditions are where that label earns its keep.

The one error of his day came on the podium, where he smashed his champagne bottle and got caught in the pyrotechnics. He was unhurt, and the clip spread quickly.

Verstappen's Comeback, With a Catch

Verstappen has now started from the back in Brazil three years running and finished on the podium each time, gaining 51 places across those races. This one was harder than usual. He admitted the start was his own fault: he held the clutch wrongly and was stuck in the chaos of the first three corners, so there was no Hamilton-style charge off the line.

Once the traffic cleared, he made fast progress. He passed Hamilton within two laps and was sixth by lap ten, right behind Lawson. After Antonelli's spins he moved up to second and was driving more than a second a lap faster than Norris at one point, with the gap down to around nine seconds. A win from 21st looked briefly possible.

Then came the switch to slicks, and the car went wrong. Verstappen reported extreme oversteer in the high-speed corners and suspected some kind of aero loss. When he went back to intermediates late on, he said the car felt night and day different, which he took as proof that something had broken. Red Bull are still investigating. Their team principal said Verstappen is beating the simulator on a regular basis, which is an unusual compliment to hand a driver at a team that spends heavily on its simulator. He was named driver of the day, and it is hard to argue.