F1 2025: São Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Recap: Lando Norris wins Sprint in Brazil as Piastri crashes out

Lando Norris continued to extend his Drivers’ Championship lead as the McLaren driver won the Sprint race in Brazil while his championship rival and teammate, Oscari Piastri had another event to forget with the Australian crashing out of the Sprint early on. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli put in a strong drive to finish P2 ahead of teammate George Russell with Mercedes picking up some crucial points.

Lando Norris got the action under as he sped off pole with the front runners but it was Liam Lawson spinning the Haas of Ollie Bearman around that dropped the young British driver to P18. By lap 4, Norris was over a second clear of Kimi Antonelli in P2 as the McLaren driver was slowly building a gap. A couple of laps later, Oscar Piastri crashed out at Turn 3, bringing out the Red Flag and ending the championship contender’s race. It wasn’t just Piastri who suffered damage as Alpine’s Franco Colapinto also went off at the same turn, which ended the Argentine’s race as well.

As racing resumed, Norris sped off again while Antonelli was pressured by his teammate, George Russell for P2. There was little to no challenge to Norris as it was a train behind him with none of the drivers getting an overtake put in on a wet track. Antonelli held his own against Russell and by lap 15 was over a second clear from his teammate. Max Verstappen was over two seconds behind Russell, unable to catch the Mercedes while the closest action on track were the two Ferraris fighting each other in P6 and P7 with Lewis Hamilton pushing his teammate. 

Antonelli finally managed to close the gap to Norris and by lap 20, he was 0.6 seconds behind the race leader. A bit behind the leaders, Leclerc, who was being pressured by his teammate, saw off Hamilton and moved up to P5 on lap 23, getting past the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso while Alonso’s teammate, Lance Stroll was also passed, by Pierre Gasly, who moved into the final points place. Despite Antonelli coming close on the final lap of the Sprint, Norris held on for the win while Gabriel Bortoleto had a huge last lap crash at Turn 1 which saw the race end under Yellow Flags. Bortoleto was turning a move at Turn 1 on the Williams of Alex Albon, with the DRS open, but lost control and ended up hitting the wall on the other side, resulting in a heavy impact crash but thankfully, the Brazilian walked away from the crash unhurt. 

Norris confirmed a big win, given the tight championship battle, while Antonelli finished a strong second. George Russell was third, ahead of Max Verstappen while Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly rounded out the points places. Norris’ win and given Piastri crashed out means that Norris heads into the main race in Brazil with a nine-point lead.