Piastri lets Norris win São Paulo Sprint, Verstappen fourth after penalty

Lando Norris has won the São Paulo Sprint race, taking three points off Max Verstappen’s championship lead, who was third.

Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri led from pole position for most of the race before following team orders to let Norris pass to aid his championship hopes.

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Verstappen followed closely behind Charles Leclerc for most of the race but overtook him in the second half when the Monegasque began to struggle with tyre wear.

After a late Virtual Safety Car was called Nico Hulkenberg parked his Haas with a problem in the exhaust system. Verstappen got close to passing Piastri when the race restarted on the final lap, but had to settle for third initially behind the two McLarens.

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However, Verstappen was penalised by the stewards for a Virtual Safety Car infringement. A 5-second penalty dropped him behind Charles Leclerc. This could prove to be another costly penalty for the Red Bull.

The 1-2 also extended McLaren’s constructors championship over Ferrari, who don’t seem to be following from their Austin-Mexico form in Brazil.

Red Bull looked stronger in this race, which they tend to do in sprint races. Verstappen was able to follow McLaren’s very easily, and Sergio Perez made up several places after a disappointing qualifying to take the final points position in 8th and set the fastest lap (there is no additional point for fastest lap in sprint races).

Pierre Gasly followed on from an impressive Friday to be the only car outside the top 4 teams to finish in the points. Ollie Bearman showed promising pace to pass his teammate Nico Hulkenberg. But it was a disappointing day for Haas, with Hulkenberg’s retirement and Bearman 14th.