Five Winners, Five Losers: São Paulo Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- 19 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Meghana Sree
Lando Norris made significant strides in the Drivers’ Championship in Brazil, but who else had a landmark week at Interlagos?
Winner - Lando Norris
Could this just be the defining weekend in the 2025 World Championship? Oscar Piastri may have been in consistent decline for several races, but the Australian still sat just one point behind his championship-leading teammate.
Not anymore.
Norris delivered emphatically in São Paulo during a sprint weekend, topping Friday practice before taking both pole positions and both race victories.
He may not have won by 30 seconds as he did in Mexico City, and it may have been a different story had Max Verstappen shown his Sunday pace all weekend, but this conjecture does not detract from the fact that he still dominated the event from start to finish.
The Briton’s 11th career victory — all at different circuits, no less — yielded his fourth consecutive podium, his joint-best run of the season, demonstrating that he has truly rediscovered his form when it matters most.
Just a few short weeks ago, Verstappen needed to outscore then-championship leader Piastri by an average of ten points per race. Despite the Dutchman’s brilliance in recent weeks, even he will now have to take on average 17 points out of Norris over the remaining three rounds to reclaim his crown.
He isn’t there yet, but Norris is the overwhelming favourite from here.
Winner - Kimi Antonelli
Pictures circulated online early last week of Kimi Antonelli visiting Aytron Senna’s grave and reading a book about the legendary Brazilian.
The rookie certainly channelled Senna when the on-track action started, too, and was consistently faster than teammate George Russell — a rarity this season.
An impressive sprint qualifying performance gave Antonelli a surprising front-row start on Saturday morning, but he held his ground to finish second.
More impressive was his repeat performance in the main qualifying session, and despite almost being swamped after the Safety Car restart on Sunday, his Grand Prix podium never appeared in doubt.
Yes, Verstappen likely would have finished second without his final stop, but Antonelli’s defensive driving in the closing laps demonstrated he was absolutely worthy of his career-best finish.
Five points-scoring finishes in the last six races matches the young Italian’s opening six races of the campaign, and it is fair to say that he has certainly shown more hallmarks of general talent than he did during his tricky mid-season.
Mercedes may now genuinely have two cars to support the team’s Constructor’s Championship efforts, and Russell may finally have a teammate who has matched his level.
Winner - Max Verstappen
A fifth world title may now be all but off the table for the time being, but what more could Max Verstappen have done in Brazil?
One key characteristic of a sprint weekend is the single hour of practice afforded to drivers on a Friday and Red Bull clearly did not have a handle on the RB21 heading into the weekend’s first racing action.
Verstappen went from sixth to fourth in the sprint, but while others took a step forward when parc fermé restrictions ended on Saturday afternoon, the Red Bull sank like a stone.
A first Q1 elimination on pure pace in his entire career made a pit lane start something of an inevitability and with a new engine and overhauled setup to boot, the Dutchman set off on an almighty charge on Sunday.
Despite an early puncture, by Lap 52 Verstappen was leading the race. It will remain a mystery to some as to why he pitted again for fresh tyres, yielding track position to Norris and Antonelli in the process.
He ultimately managed third place with a drive that almost certainly deserved more. Top-level sport is not a charity though, so instead let us just marvel at what was surely the drive of the season.
The number 33 will surely be back next season, but the current number one has not gone down without a fight.
Winner - Oliver Bearman
What a way for Ollie Bearman to follow up his fourth place in Mexico City.
The British rookie didn’t really set the track alight over the sprint format, and following a collision with Liam Lawson now has nine points on his licence until at least next May.
However, that’s a problem for the future.
In the here and now, Bearman is in the form of his life, amassing four consecutive top 10 starts and taking points in each of those races too.
He is also putting together one of the strongest-ever seasons for a Haas driver, too. Not since Kevin Magnussen finished ninth in the standings in 2018 has one of Gene Haas’ men broken into the top ten, but Bearman now finds himself 11th and just three points shy of Nico Hülkenberg and Isack Hadjar.
Neither Bearman nor former Formula 2 teammate Antonelli was able to enjoy as many wins as they should have for a struggling PREMA team last year, but both have truly blossomed and shown their true quality in recent weeks.
Winner - Liam Lawson
Like Bearman, Lawson may find himself in a race-ban shaped predicament at some point in the future, but his performance on Sunday was very assured.
Another beneficiary of Red Bull and Ferrari’s struggles, the Kiwi snuck into the top 10 shootout on Saturday, qualifying a respectable seventh.
Finishing where he started, Lawson collected his first points since his fifth place in Baku and contributed to a valuable double-points finish for Racing Bulls.
Loser - Oscar Piastri
Despite having led the World Championship for the best part of six months, it may well be that Piastri has said goodbye to his title chances with three races and a sprint remaining.
Yes, an incident for Norris or an upturn in his own form are both possible, and either could yet happen, but it just feels increasingly unlikely.
The Australian was already on the back foot at the start of the sprint, his grid slot three places lower than that of Norris. The back foot soon became the barrier, when he was caught out by some standing water at Turn 3 and speared off the track.
Whether it was a mistake or bad luck is moot — the incident was absolutely typical of Piastri’s current predicament.
His race was better, but only in the sense that he managed to score points. Starting fourth, Piastri actually lost a position to pitlane-starting Verstappen and lost further ground to the two other title challengers.
The Australian has now been outscored by both Norris and Verstappen in each of the last five races and his points deficit to the Briton (24) now almost mirrors his advantage of the Dutchman (25).
Given each driver’s current trajectory, third in the championship looks a whole lot more likely than first right now.
Loser - Ferrari
Following his retirement from Sunday’s race, Lewis Hamilton said he had been living a “nightmare” for most of his debut campaign with Ferrari.
There is little more that can be added to the seven-time world champion’s summation.
A double points finish in the sprint was little to celebrate, with Mercedes’ turn of pace seeing Hamilton’s former team usurp his current in the teams’ standings.
The Briton suffered his sixth Q2 elimination of the season on Saturday, marking a serious undoing of his upturn of form in the US and Mexico.
A nightmare opening lap and terminal damage meant his race was pretty much over straight away, even if he didn’t officially retire until Lap 37.
Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, not known for having a huge amount of luck in his recent racing career, found himself simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as he went three-wide with Piastri and Antonelli on Lap 5.
Very much the innocent party, as so often seems to be the case with Leclerc, he was left to bear the scars, retiring pretty much on the spot with suspension damage.
Bizarrely, Hamilton and Leclerc now have one disqualification and two retirements each this season, and they all came in the same three weekends. When it rains, it pours, hey.
Ferrari lost a further place in the championship to Red Bull due to Verstappen’s heroics, and as if matters could not be worse, the team’s troubles continued into the new week, when Ferrari Chairman John Elkann suggested Hamilton and Leclerc should “talk less” and “focus on driving”.
Loser - Gabriel Bortoleto
São Paulo’s home hero had a weekend to forget, as Gabriel Bortoleto failed to finish either the sprint or the Grand Prix.
Fighting on the fringes of the top 10 during the sprint, the rookie went for a late move on Alex Albon into Turn 1. Losing control on the damp off-line part of the circuit, the Brazilian’s Sauber was launched into the air before sustaining a 57G impact with the barriers.
Bortoleto then never even made it out of the garage in qualifying, and managed barely half a lap on Sunday, before a collision with Lance Stroll topped off a soul-crushing weekend.
Describing the debacle as “one of the toughest weekends” of his career, it is hard not to feel a bucketful of sympathy for the young man.
Loser - Lance Stroll
It is now six races without a point for Lance Stroll and his antics in Brazil certainly did not bolster his reputation among his fellow drivers.
The Aston Martin driver squeezed Bortoleto on the opening lap, leading to the Brazilian’s retirement, with Franco Colapinto later accusing Stroll of “always taking people out”.
At one stage poised to finish above veteran teammate Fernando Alonso in the standings, the Canadian’s 2025 is ending with a whimper.
Loser - Yuki Tsunoda
Saturday’s qualifying session was amongst the closest Yuki Tsunoda has been to teammate Max Verstappen all season.
Under normal circumstances, qualifying within three tenths of the Dutchman would put Tsunoda somewhere in the top 10, but on this occasion the pair found themselves 16th and 19th.
While Verstappen started from the pitlane and scythed through the field, the Japanese driver continued to limp round at the back of the field, finishing 17th and last of the classified finishers.
With Hadjar scoring points once again for Racing Bulls, Tsunoda’s days really may be numbered.
