2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
3 days ago
4 min read

Norris Wins Again as Verstappen Goes from Pitlane to Podium

It really was the perfect weekend for Lando Norris as the McLaren driver took his 7th victory of the season to extend his Championship lead to a pretty mighty 24 points! Andrea Kimi Antonelli made it four P2’s from four in what was the best weekend of his career to date, whilst Max Verstappen rounded out the Podium after starting from the pitlane!

The Biggest Talking Points

Whilst most of the front runners escaped the first lap unscathed, the same couldn’t be said for Gabriel Bortoleto as the home hero found himself in the wall at Turn 10 after a coming together with Lance Stroll! Things also went pretty disastrously for Lewis Hamilton, with him being clipped by Carlos Sainz at Turn 1 before he then drove into the back of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, resulting in his front wing scrapping underneath his car (completely ruining the floor of his Ferrari)! After a Safety Car was called, we got more carnage down at Turn 1 as a three-car incident between Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri resulted in Charles’ suspension breaking to add further misery to the Tifosi’s afternoon! Oscar received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision here, but for me, this isn’t a penalty; Piastri had every right to go for the move, and Antonelli completely turned in like he wasn’t there! However, one thing we can all agree on is Charles was a complete innocent party in all of this, and yet he was the one out of the Grand Prix!

Yuki Tsunoda was next to receive a 10-second time penalty after he completely harpooned Lance Stroll (you’re telling me that Piastri’s move was as bad as this?), before his teammate Max Verstappen was starting to make progress after initially having to stop due to a slow puncture on his Hard compound tyres! After receiving a 5-second time penalty for his collision with Colapinto, Lewis Hamilton swiftly retired to cap off a horrific day for Ferrari, whilst in the second stint, Max was becoming a real factor as Lando Norris’ pace massively dropped off! In fact, Verstappen even led at one point after Norris pitted and came out behind both Max and Oscar, but thankfully for Lando, both drivers ahead of him pitted again! The closing phases of the Race was then all about what could Verstappen and Piastri do, and whilst Oscar couldn’t make any progress (that 10-second time penalty really cost him dear), Max was able to clear George Russell for third! However, second-place just wasn’t meant to be for the 4-time World Champion as Kimi Antonelli brilliantly held his nerve, whilst back in the midfield, we got a super scrap to the line as the two Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar came very close to wiping each other out completely!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve actually been really generous and given out five 10’s for the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and the first one is obviously for Lando Norris! I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again; the Norris-McLaren combination looks unstoppable right now, and he’ll win this Championship before we even get to Abu Dhabi! The second driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and whilst Lando may have gotten a Perfect 40 this weekend, so did Kimi! Bravo Kimi, this was by far the best weekend of your career to date! The third driver I’ve given a Perfect 10 to is Max Verstapppen, and I genuinely don’t think anyone other than Max could’ve achieved what they did in this Race; to go from pitlane to the Podium is genuinely incredible! The next driver I’ve given a perfect score to is Oliver Bearman, and we haven’t even spoken about Ollie once yet! Like seriously, Bearman was brilliant once again, and he ended up finishing closer to P2 than he did P7 (insane)! Speaking of P7, the final driver I’ve given a 10 to is Liam Lawson, and I think this weekend has firmly solidified the fact that Liam will be on the grid in 2026, because to pull off a 1-stop strategy in this Race was superb! However, there are more names to mention as both Isack Hadjar and Nico Hulkenberg drove great Races, whilst well done to Pierre Gasly for scoring another point for Alpine (he really does love it around here)!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I’ve given out two 1’s for this weekend’s Race in Interlagos, and the first one is for Yuki Tsunoda! The mistake that Yuki made to smash into the back of Lance Stroll was pretty horrendous, and Red Bull then didn’t do him any favours when they served his penalty incorrectly! However, for Tsunoda to finish comfortably last is completely unacceptable, and I definitely think his time in F1 (at least for now) is all but over! The other driver I’ve given the lowest possible grade to is Lewis Hamilton, and whilst this may seem harsh, Lewis just drove into the back of Franco Colapinto, resulting in him not only receiving a penalty, but also suffering enough damage that eventually saw him have to retire from his second Home Race! The only other team we need to mention is Aston Martin, because in a Race where 7 teams scored, to finish 14th and 16th (out of 17 finishers) is pretty shambolic!