F1 - Sao Paulo GP 2025 - Norris wins, Antonelli shines & Piastri falters
Interlagos delivered the chaos that is often desired at F1 races — penalties, comebacks, heartbreaks, and a rookie masterclass.
🧡🖤 Joy for NorrisLando Norris was an unstoppable force at Interlagos. He clinched pole position on Saturday afternoon with a time of 1m 09.511s, beating Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli by nearly two-tenths of a second and got the edge over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who qualified 3rd despite Ferrari's struggles throughout the season. On to Sunday's race, Norris started strong from pole and held an early lead, despite the many incidents that took place through the race.
Norris' teammate, Oscar Piastri (who is also Lando's main title rival) gained a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision as Piastri dived inside Kimi Antonelli's and Leclerc's racing line. This subsequently ended with Piastri's front-left tire locking up, making contact with Antonelli, which in turn knocked Antonelli into the path of Leclerc.
This incident left Piastri and his title hopes to diminish as Norris secured his maiden victory at Interlagos, McLaren's first in Brazil since Jenson Button's 2012 win, which also proved to be his last. Norris now holds a 24-point advantage over his McLaren teammate, Piastri, who has visibly started to falter in the last few races.
The Rookie's Masterclass 🇮🇹
Rising star, Kimi Antonelli really proved his worth at Interlagos, securing his best ever finish in F1 with an assured P2. He showed serious pace in the sprint - narrowly missing pole position to Britain's Lando Norris, coming home with another P2 in Saturday afternoon's sprint race. Many pundits this season have doubted Antonelli's ability to achieve in F1, commenting that Antonelli is "Too young" just because he had only spent a season in F1's feeder series, F2, which has seen graduates progress into F1 like Kimi's Mercedes teammate, George Russell in 2019 and his 2024 F2 teammate, Oliver Bearman.
Sunday's race proved that Kimi is not just a wasted talent in F1, that we have seen many times before. Antonelli's strategy seemed bold and his execution - calm and controlled. Mercedes did actually opt to go for a show-stopping tire plan, involving skipping the medium compound tire for fresh softs. Despite this, Antonelli stood his ground and didn't let multiple racing incidents get in his way.
Piastri's title bid falters at Interlagos 🇦🇺
Aussie Oscar Piastri title hopes have started to drift away from his reach. Friday's FP1 session gave hope for the McLaren faithfuls' as Piastri showed his usual pace and integrity we are all used to seeing, as he just missed his chance to swipe top spot by a jaw-dropping 0.023 seconds with his teammate Lando Norris topping the time sheets. Illustrating that McLaren may be in competitive territory this weekend.
During interviews with the media, Piastri remained optimistic and positive, emphasising that he still believed in his title fight with his teammate. He also noted that there was a hint of underlying pace throughout FP1. Piastri would then go on to qualify 4th for Sunday's highly anticipated, Sao Paulo Grand Prix. This showed some signs of life after his messy sprint that saw him DNF, which he called himself out for quoting that his sprint crash was "A silly mistake really, an unfortunate mistake" (Piastri's explanation to his sprint crash).
The major blow: Piastri's actions in the GP. As mentioned, Piastri was penalised 10 seconds for causing a collision with Antonelli early in the race, which defined the outcome of Oscar's race. He ended the day with a mere P5, finishing behind Mercedes' George Russell, finishing 0.482s of Russell.
The question lies: "If pace isn't enough for Piastri to win, then how much longer will he hold out for the championship?"
