Norris tops practice for the São Paulo Grand Prix
- Jason Sharp
- 18 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Written by Jason Sharp
With just four rounds left of the 2025 season, there is a 36-point gap between the top three drivers and only one point between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the top. Everything is to play for at Interlagos, a venue that always produces unpredictability.
Max Verstappen won this race last year with a wet weather masterclass from 17th on the grid. He has also scored points at every race he’s done at this track. McLaren is the most successful team here with 12 wins, although their last one was back in 2012.
The sole practice session at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace began with a five-minute delay while the marshals cleaned up the circuit. The drivers eagerly waited to start their hour of running on the 2.67-mile, anticlockwise circuit, before diving into sprint qualifying.
Yuki Tsunoda quickly found the barriers at turn four, after losing the rear of his Red Bull. The Japanese driver suffered front wing and rear suspension damage, compromising his weekend by missing half of the session. His teammate Verstappen also had a major snap at the same corner but was able to catch it.
All drivers opted to run on the hard compound tyres until the closing stages of the session; the lap times then quickly tumbled after most went out on the mediums. It was only Red Bull that did runs on the soft compound, and Ferrari chose to only run on the hard tyres.
Ferrari has a scare in the final moments of the session as Hamilton had a dramatic spin just before the final corner. The seven time champion continued with no damage done.
It was Lando Norris that prevailed in this session, posting a lap time of 1:09.975. His teammate Piastri was much closer this time in P2, just 0.023 seconds behind.
Nico Hülkenberg was on pole in Interlagos 15 years ago today and trailed the McLarens in P3 by 0.619 seconds in his Sauber. Fernando Alonso finished the session in P4, and the home hero Gabriel Bortoleto was P5 in the second Sauber.
George Russell was P6 ahead of a much more optimistic Pierre Gasly in P7. Alpine are looking stronger and are desperate for a good result to pull them up from last in the standings. Carlos Sainz was P8 in his new liveried Williams ahead of Isaac Hadjar in P9 and Kimi Antonelli rounded out the top ten.
Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton were P17, P18 and P19 respectively after only posting lap times on the hard tyres. Their teams will be hopeful that their drivers will quickly have a feel for the softer tyres in SQ3.
Tsunoda rounded out the bottom of the session after his incident and will face a weekend of damage limitation as practice quickly concludes before sprint qualifying.
