The sprint on the Formula 1 weekend for the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo ended on Saturday in difficult conditions with victory for Lando Norris while his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri also retired. Norris has thus increased his lead over Piastri at the top of the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship from one to nine points before the Grand Prix (Sunday).
Piastri lost control of his McLaren in Turn 3 (Curva do Sol) on the sixth of 24 laps of the sprint when he went over the inside curb. This curb was wet. It had rained in Sao Paulo in the morning.
What’s more: Norris, as the leader, seemed to stir up some water with his line in Turn 3 on the sixth lap. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), who was immediately behind, avoided the curb on the inside of the curve. Piastri, who was third at the time, drove over the curb, spun and crashed into the barrier on the outside of the corner.
“Just hit the white line on the curb with one wheel and then I spun around. Stupid mistake, really, an unfortunate mistake,” says Piastri curtly.
“I guess I’ll just have to put this aside now,” Piastri said elsewhere, namely to Sky Sports F1. Qualifying for the Grand Prix is scheduled for the afternoon in Sao Paulo.
“We’ll see what we can do there. Tomorrow there will of course be significantly more points. So the better I get along in the afternoon and get a good starting position, the better the starting position will be for me,” said the Australian.
Russell jokes about Norris: “Smartest guy in the field
“While Piastri remained without championship points in the sprint on Saturday, his teammate Lando Norris won ahead of the two Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. In the press conference after the short Saturday race, all three were asked about the sixth round.
“Well, you always take the curb there generously,” says Norris, referring to dry conditions. “But if it’s wet, then of course you generally want to stay away from the curbs. I got a little far out there and saw water running down the track. But that was it.”
Antonelli says: “I saw Lando driving way out, which caused water to spray up. I actually got a lot of water on my visor. I stayed away from the curbs as much as I could throughout the race because the conditions were really tricky, especially at the start.”
“When I saw the water splashing behind him, I tried to be extra careful to avoid a spin or something like that,” Antonelli said.
Antonelli’s teammate Russell takes this opportunity to make a comparison. Alluding to Norris, he says with a grin: “It was a bit like Mario Kart, where you throw the banana out the back. This guy is the smartest in the field.”
Apart from Oscar Piastri, turn 3 on the sixth lap also proved fatal to Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine). They all took off at this point, with Hülkenberg being the only one who was able to continue his journey. He ultimately finished in P16. Colapinto’s crash resulted in a red flag interruption of the sprint because the track barrier needed to be repaired.
In terms of the points situation, Piastri is of course the one who has the most damage. At McLaren they hope that they can rebuild the car in time for qualifying (7:00 p.m. CET) so that Piastri can then achieve the good starting position he is aiming for in the time hunt for the starting grid for Sunday.
Declaration of war from Andrea Stella
“It was a great result for Lando, but a wasted opportunity for Oscar,” says McLaren team boss Andrea Stella. “The conditions were difficult. If you hit a curb with one wheel, there’s no going back. You no longer have the opportunity to control the car.”
“This happened to three drivers in the same place on the same lap. So it’s just bad luck,” said Stella and continued: “But the most pleasing thing so far is that Oscar was fast. We’re now looking forward and want to implement this speed in qualifying and then in the race tomorrow.”
“We know that Oscar is very capable and very fast. So we’ll repair the car and try again,” said the McLaren team boss, who is convinced: “He’ll get back on his feet very quickly. I’m sure that as soon as he’s back with the engineers, he’ll think about what we can do for qualifying and what we’ve learned from the laps in the sprint.”
“Racing drivers pick themselves up and keep going. You can’t let disappointments influence you, otherwise you’ll only weaken yourself,” says Stella.