Five Winners, Five Losers: São Paulo Grand Prix
Interlagos delivered arguably the race of the season once again, but who shone through the rain and who faltered?
Winner: Mercedes
It wasn’t a traditionally successful weekend for Mercedes, with the São Paulo Grand Prix marking the first time this season that neither Kimi Antonelli nor George Russell stood upon the podium.
Ironically, though, the Silver Arrows’ worst race of the season, courtesy of fourth for Russell and fifth for Antonelli, was enough to outscore Ferrari by three points and wrap up a ninth Constructors’ title overall and first since 2021.
Antonelli barely made the race start after running off the track at Junçáo and almost getting beached, but made a blistering launch from second to disappear up the road once the lights went out.
The Italian was then caught out twice by the changeable conditions, struggling badly with tyre warmup when he switched from the intermediates to the softs, while his late swap back onto the intermediates later in the race cost him further time and positions. An unsafe release into the path of Franco Colapinto also landed him a five-second penalty, which was inconsequential to his finishing position.
Russell’s big drama happened in the pit exit as he was re-entering the track with soft tyres on Lap 17, spinning right in front of Isack Hadjar and somehow avoiding any damage.
He later recovered well from both the spin and his grid penalty, finishing ahead of his teammate for the first time in five races.
While neither driver had their finest day, though, Sunday afternoon in Brazil was one for the team. Toto Wolff crammed as many of his staff onto the podium as he could as the Austrian celebrated his ninth teams’ title as boss and his 17th in total, both joint records with the great Sir Frank Williams.
Winner: Max Verstappen
17th to first in 2024, pit lane to third in 2025 and 21st to second in 2026: how would you rank Max Verstappen’s last three performances at Interlagos?
The Dutchman started way down the order in Brazil for a third year in a row due to exceeding his permitted number of engines for the season, as did several others including Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
The Brit, starting 20th, made up an incredible 11 places on the opening lap, but Verstappen was unwilling to be outdone, passing the Ferrari on Lap 3 and climbing to seventh by the time the field switched to dry tyres.
The four-time champion was the fastest man on track in the early stages of dry running and cruised up to the back of teammate Hadjar before Red Bull initiated a swap. His pace stalled slightly thereafter as he remained a consistent eight to nine seconds down on race leader Norris before the switch back to the intermediate tyres.
Once the rain came down again, Verstappen was actually the slowest driver in the top five for a number of laps before taking some time back out of the McLaren to finish 11 seconds off victory.
All in all though, 21st to second speaks for itself. Verstappen demonstrated for a second race running that he is still the gold standard, no matter who the champion is.
Winner: Lando Norris
2025 may have been his crowning year, but 2026 is arguably the season that Lando Norris has emerged as a modern great.
The McLaren man won at Interlagos in marvellous fashion 12 months ago en route to the title, but his performance this time round was the latest in a long line of driving masterclasses this season.
Norris also reasserted his claim to being the best wet weather driver on the current grid (although that is a title Verstappen is yet to relinquish) by delivering a third consecutive pole position in a wet qualifying session (following São Paulo in 2024 and Las Vegas in 2025).
The Briton followed up his one-lap pace with a clinical display on Sunday, despite losing the lead to Antonelli at the race start. He remained in the Italian’s shadow throughout the first pit stops and capitalised on one of the Mercedes’ many adventures at Turn 1 to retake the lead on Lap 20.
From there, Norris’ only challenger was Verstappen, but he built enough of a lead to be able simply to match the Dutchman’s pace in the closing laps and see out a brilliant victory.
Winner: Isack Hadjar
It is usually a poor look for a driver to start 16 places ahead of their teammate and still finish behind them, although in Isack Hadjar’s defence an exception can be made when your teammate is Verstappen at a wet Interlagos.
The Frenchman delivered an error-free 71 laps in Brazil, which was better than either of the Mercedes drivers managed, and brought home a deserved third podium of the season.
It should also not go unnoticed that once he was caught and told to let Verstappen past, Hadjar remained in his teammate’s wheeltracks for a number of laps to such an extent that his request to swap positions back was completely valid.
Hadjar was then even slightly quicker than the Dutchman for a few laps once the pair switched back to intermediates, although the timing of their stops left him too far behind to challenge for a career-best second place.
With Liam Lawson’s seat at Racing Bulls for 2027 looking perplexingly insecure, the blame for the Kiwi’s uncertain future can at least indirectly be attributed to Hadjar, whose superb performances this year have finally broken the Red Bull second seat curse.
Winner: Interlagos
Arguably the race of the season every year since 2019, with the exception of 2020 when it wasn’t on the calendar, Brazil once again brought out the best of F1. The drivers generally shone, with not a single Virtual Safety Car, full Safety Car or red flag for the first time this season.
The rain once again contributed to the drama, too, but that does not take away from the fact that Interlagos is the perfect layout for Grand Prix racing.
It is incredible what level of drama can be achieved simply by following the formula of long straights followed by heavy braking zones, with a couple of technical off-camber corners thrown in too.
While other classic venues like Suzuka and Spa have proved unsuitable at times to modern F1, Interlagos continues to provide box office entertainment across a variety of regulation cycles.
The announcement that its place on the calendar has been extended to at least 2035 is some of the best news that fans have had for a while.
Loser: Ferrari
It was always going to be a tricky race for Ferrari at São Paulo, with both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc expecting 10-place grid penalties for exceeding their season allocation of internal combustion engines.
As is often the case with the Scuderia, though, things were soon complicated further as Hamilton’s new engine failed within seven laps of Saturday morning’s FP3 session, prompting a complete power unit change and a back-of-the-grid start.
The seven-time champion excelled in damp conditions on the opening lap, making up 11 places from 20th with some stunning driving that included a move around the outside of his teammate around Turn 3.
Hamilton soon fell backwards, however, as he struggled for temperature in his rear tyres, and he was down in 14th by the time he pitted for soft tyres. Ever the rain master, he made up a handful of positions by blinking early and was challenging Lawson for eighth place before the rain began to fall once more.
Hamilton’s switch to intermediate tyres was not as inspired as his earlier switch to the dry compound, though, and a spin through the high-speed T13 as he struggled for grip before his stop somehow did not mark the end of his afternoon.
In the sister car, Leclerc seemed slow whenever Hamilton was quick and fast whenever the sister car was slow. In the end, Leclerc’s “strategy” proved the faster, as the Monégasque went from fighting Alpine’s Franco Colapinto for 15th to seventh place by the chequered flag.
His clumsy move on Lawson at Junçáo landed the new father with a time penalty for a second straight race, though, and he was ultimately classed eighth, one place ahead of Hamilton.
Loser: Alpine
Alpine were the other big losers in the changing conditions of São Paulo, as the Enstone team’s weekend began with their worst qualifying session of the season. Pierre Gasly suffered his first Q1 elimination of the season in 18th, one place behind Colapinto who also fell at the first hurdle.
Both were promoted a handful of positions due to penalties in front of them, with Colapinto starting 13th and Gasly 15th, but neither was able to take advantage and fight for points.
The Frenchman passed Leclerc as the track dried out and fought for a short while with Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon over 11th place, while Colapinto remained not too far behind.
Mistimed pit stops for both cars as the rain began to fall dropped them back down the order and the pair finished top to tail in 13th and 14th, both finishing a race outside the top 10 for just the second time this season.
The result also extends Alpine’s disappointing run of form to six races, with the team picking up just two points in that period.
Loser: Lance Stroll
It has already been a miserable season for Lance Stroll, but following the Canadian’s retirement in Brazil it could now realistically become a historically miserable season.
The Aston Martin driver’s participation in the São Paulo race ended on Lap 31 with battery issues, his second power unit-induced retirement in a week.
That takes his total for the year to 14, just two shy of Andea de Cesaris’ all-time record of 16 in the 1987 season.
While de Cesaris failed to finish a single race that season, he did manage to score a podium in Belgium after completing more of the race than all but two of his competitors. Stroll, however, has had no such luck so far, with even his six race finishes yet to earn him a point.
Father and team owner Lawrence Stroll was trackside at Interlagos and has reportedly reached his wit’s end trying to work out how to turn Aston’s fortunes round for next season. If anything, it’s surprising that it’s taken as many as 20 races for him to do so.
Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto
Gabriel Bortoleto’s home race was certainly not one of his finest.
The young Brazilian was the only driver in the field to suffer a session-ending accident in Saturday’s wet qualifying session, crashing heavily at Junçáo and damaging his rear wing.
There was some misfortune involved, as several other drivers such as Ollie Bearman and Stroll went off at the same corner and were able to carry on.
However, even as Audi took the opportunity to change his engine on Saturday night, Bortoleto actually made up places on the starting grid due to prior penalties for Hamilton, Verstappen and Sergio Pérez.
That stroke of luck counted for little ultimately, as Bortoleto started poorly and spent most of the race in a personal battle with Bearman over 16th place.
By contrast, the Brazilian’s teammate Nico Hülkenberg qualified sixth, started fourth and was able to hold on for a point in tenth as the likes of Verstappen and the Ferraris came through.
There was pace in the Audi this weekend—Bortoleto just didn’t show it.
Loser: Valtteri Bottas
Like Aston Martin, Cadillac have hardly been blessed with reliability this season. While Aston, however, can attribute their problems squarely to their underpowered and malfunctioning power unit, Cadillac are still having issues everywhere on their car.
Usually it is a brake or engine failure that sends Valtteri Bottas or teammate Pérez for an early bath, but the Finn’s terrifying suspension failure in Mexico City followed by his rear wheel being jammed onto his car in São Paulo shows that Cadillac still haven’t really got a read on their car at all.
The fact that Bottas was unable to make the start of Sunday’s race isn’t even his biggest problem. For a start, he once had a 43-hour pitstop for Mercedes at (and indeed well after) the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, so it isn’t his first rodeo when it comes to stubborn tyres.
More pressing, though, is the fact that Cadillac reserve Colton Herta finally, and after some confusion, managed to accrue enough superlicence points to merit a full-time seat in F1 by completing 100 kilometres in Friday’s FP1 session.
Paddock gossip suggests that spells danger for Bottas, as the American team look to get their home driver onto the grid in a full-time capacity in 2028.
Edited by Meghana Sree
Comments