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Norris stretches lead after winning sprint
Giles Richards
Lando Norris won the sprint race for the São Paulo Grand Prix and with it extended his lead over his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, whose championship ambitions took another blow after he crashed out with an unforced error in Brazil. Max Verstappen also dropped points to Norris after he could manage only fourth for Red Bull.
Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were in second and third for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton took seventh from 11th on the grid for Ferrari, with his teammate Charles Leclerc in fifth.
Norris led from pole to the flag at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in a race that opened in damp conditions after earlier rain that made the track tricky and which caught Piastri out. It was an enormously costly error and one from which his McLaren team must now repair his car to have it ready for qualifying.
Norris extended his lead over Piastri to nine points, while Verstappen dropped back to 39 points behind the British driver, with 108 still on the table from the remaining four meetings (including a sprint race in Qatar).
Piastri had qualified in third and was looking to close on Antonelli when on lap six the Australian spun out after he caught the kerb with his left-front at the exit of turn two and slid into the barriers. The same spot then caught out Nico Hülkenberg and Franco Colapinto, who went off after edging on to the same kerb immediately after the Australian. The race was then stopped a lap later to deal with the cars at the side of the track.
Piastri had already endured a run of difficult races of late, including crashing out in Baku and being off the pace in the US and Mexico, which has enabled Norris to overtake him in the championship standings. He made an error at the last sprint in Austin,striking Norris and taking them both out of the race when too optimistic heading into turn one, bruising his confidence just as the season reaches its crucial phase.
Having exhibited such control and assurance as he took a strong lead in the title race early in the season, his touch increasingly appears to have deserted him of late.
This stands in stark contrast to Norris, for whom the victory comes on the back of his dominant pole-to-flag win in Mexico as he continues what has been an enormously strong and consistent run of form. It demonstrates that he is now very much more comfortable with a car that early in the season he had struggled with, as he was not suited to the lack of feel for grip through the front axle.
It is his third sprint race win, having taken the first in Brazil last year and his second in Miami this season, and is another statement of intent from the British driver. On this form the McLaren remains the class of the field and will likely be formidable in qualifying and the grand prix.
On the restart following the red flag after Piastri went out, Norris held the lead from a frenetic rolling launch and began swiftly to open a gap once more even while the track remained treacherous, with damp areas and strong gusts of wind making handling tricky.
Norris put more than a second on Antonelli by lap 16 but the Italian did come back at him as the soft tyres Norris had taken began to suffer in the final third. Antonelli pushed hard for the last four laps but Norris held his nerve and closed it out with great assurance, albeit under yellow flags after Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a huge crash.
On the final lap Bortoleto, from Osasco in São Paulo state, lost the rear looking to go up the inside heading into turn and speared into the barriers on the inside which catapulted him, airborne into the barriers on the opposite side of the circuit with an enormously heavy impact. Bortoleto emerged from the car and was taken to the medical centre.
Verstappen, who has been unhappy with his car all weekend, could make little progress. Lacking grip and suffering over the bumps of the circuit, he described it as “completely broken” on Friday after sprint qualifying and badly needs to find a better race setup for race qualifying.
Sprint race drama in São Paulo
Lando Norris’s world championship hopes were handed a boost after Oscar Piastri crashed out of Saturday’s sprint race in São Paulo.
Norris began the race from pole position and was leading before the action was suspended on lap seven of 24 after Piastri hit the barriers at turn three. Franco Colapinto and Nico Hülkenberg also collided with the wall in the same part of a damp Interlagos track, leading to a safety car, and then a red flag.
Norris started from pole position and was in control of the race when Piastri, running in third, lost control of his McLaren. Piastri dipped his front-left tyre on to the damp kerb on the exit of the Senna Esses which sent him into a spin and an unavoidable date with the wall.
With Colapinto and Hülkenberg both following Piastri off the track, the race was red-flagged to repair the tyre barrier. Norris will extend his title advantage to nine points if he wins the 24-lap dash to the flag. PA Media
