Norris wins São Paulo GP sprint to narrow gap as Verstappen hit with penalty

After what was an already tense weekend in the world championship battle, the pressure on the protagonists has only ramped up for Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix, now set to be an extended challenge after qualifying at Interlagos was postponed because of torrential rain. The drivers will, conditions permitting, hope to go again to set the grid at 10.30am UK time before a short reset to be ready for the grand prix, which has been brought forward to 3.30pm to forestall further expected heavy rain.

Before the deluge the sprint race had at least managed to be run, with McLaren’s Lando Norris coming out on top over title rival Max Verstappen. Indeed, perhaps Verstappen will welcome the chance to come again afresh on Sunday. After what has already been a difficult weekend for the Dutchman, with a five-place grid penalty for an engine change set for the GP, he suffered another setback, penalised and losing a place during the sprint after Norris and McLaren took the early advantage with the win secured decisively using team orders.

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Norris took the flag after McLaren instructed teammate Oscar Piastri to cede the lead to maximise the British driver’s points advantage over Verstappen. The Dutchman finished third but was later given a five-second penalty for failing to maintain the mandated time under a virtual safety car, dropping him to fourth. Piastri was second, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third and Carlos Sainz fifth.

Verstappen has endured a testing weekend and his temper will not have been improved by the penalty. The engine change he had accepted as part and parcel of such a long season. However on Friday the stewards announced they were to only fine Leclerc for swearing in a press conference, a misdemeanour for which Verstappen was recently punished with a bout of community service, which will surely have rankled enormously. For it to be followed with another penalty, dropping him a place in the sprint will likely have only compounded his sense of grievance.

In the short-form race Piastri had led from pole until lap 22 of the 24 when he moved over for his teammate but McLaren had made it clear early on their intent was to switch the two drivers in Norris’s favour and Piastri had been explicit beforehand he would not have an issue doing so.

“We’ve been talking about this for months and this is really the first time that we’ve had to enforce it,” he said. “So, yes, I would have preferred to have won. But it’s a sprint. It’s the same points for the team and being realistic, I don’t have much to fight for in the drivers’ standing.”

Norris expressed his gratitude to his teammate. “I am not proud of it,” he said. “Oscar deserved it but we did what we had to do, so I thank him and the team.”

The victory was key in continuing Norris’s comeback at Verstappen in the championship battle. He has taken a further three points from his rival, closing the gap to 44 points with 112 available from one further sprint and four races to come.

The pace of the McLaren will give him optimism he can take another chunk out of Verstappen’s lead in Sunday’s race, but further rain expected may well level the playing field.

Verstappen and Red Bull will also take heart from the pace their car demonstrated in the sprint. The Red Bull showed enormous speed and importantly, given Verstappen’s grid penalty, he was able to put it to great use and was crucially quicker than the Ferraris. He will expect at very least to minimise the potential points loss to Norris and possibly more if conditions fall in his favour. Forecasts suggest similar outbursts of heavy rain on Sunday, throwing the race wide open and given his skill in the wet, playing to Verstappen’s strengths.

It will test every driver if anything like the inexorable storm that hit Interlagos on Saturday. Shortly before qualifying was due to begin it swept across the circuit accompanied by thunder and lightning and the session was delayed. The intensity was such that teams were given dispensation to close their garages, streams of water were running over the track, making conditions all but impossible for driving.

After a three-hour delay the decision was made to postpone qualifying until Sunday by the FIA due to the lack of visibility and for the safety of the drivers. If no qualifying is able to take place on Sunday, the stewards have the authority to decide how the grid will be assembled, potentially from first practice results, sprint qualifying or the results of the sprint race itself.

There was however some dissatisfaction at the decision not to run qualifying in the rain. “This is ridiculous, we should go out,” Lewis Hamilton said to F1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali. “I want to go out. If you give us better wet tyres with blankets we would be able to run in this.”

Domenicali insisted it was not suitable to take to the track. “We cannot control the weather,” he said. “It is a pity but the conditions are not safe to drive, and there is a problem with light, too.”