Norris wins wet São Paulo Grand Prix as Mercedes clinch constructors' title
Lando Norris won the São Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday, holding his nerve through a race that began in the wet, dried out, and turned wet again in the closing laps to beat Max Verstappen by 14.6 seconds at Interlagos. The victory, his third of the season, also settled the teams' championship: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished fourth and fifth, enough for Mercedes to clinch the constructors' title with three races still to run.
Norris started from pole but lost the lead at the first corner, where new world champion Antonelli swept past him on the run to Turn 1. Antonelli had already spun once on his reconnaissance lap before the start, and he spun again at Turn 1 on lap 20, handing the lead to Norris for good. Verstappen, meanwhile, produced the drive of the day, climbing from 21st on the grid to second, with his Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar completing the podium in third. Russell recovered from a spin at the pit-lane exit to finish fourth, just ahead of Antonelli.
The 71-lap race, run over 1 hour 35 minutes 23.5 seconds by the winner, kept changing shape with the weather. Norris led 47 laps in total and managed the final downpour on intermediate tyres while others scrambled to pit. Behind the leaders, Oscar Piastri took sixth for McLaren and Charles Leclerc seventh for Ferrari, while Lewis Hamilton finished ninth on his 400th Formula 1 start after climbing from 20th on the grid.
Formula 1's own race report confirms the result, the winning margin of 14.602 seconds and the top-five order, and the Associated Press account agrees on every placing. The one point on which coverage differs is the count of Mercedes' titles: two outlets printed eighth, but the team's run of eight consecutive championships from 2014 to 2021 plus this one makes nine, and the Associated Press reported team principal Toto Wolff celebrating the ninth title after the race. One matter is still open: Antonelli was placed under a post-race investigation for pulling into the path of an Alpine as he left his pit box, and no outcome had been announced when the report was published.
The result completes a championship double for Mercedes a week after Antonelli sealed the drivers' crown in Mexico City, and it ends a four-year wait for the constructors' title, the team's first since 2021. For Norris, it was a second consecutive win in Brazil and a reminder of the form that carried him to the 2025 drivers' title, even as the 2026 crown now belongs to his successor. Verstappen's recovery from the back of the grid to second, gaining 19 places, was the other story of the afternoon and underlined why Interlagos keeps producing his most memorable drives.
The season now takes a week off before the final triple-header, starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix on 19-21 November. Mercedes arrive there with both championships already secured, leaving the remaining races to decide the final order behind them and the places in the drivers' standings.