Title dreams dashed?
Debacle for Verstappen – Norris counters and takes pole
Updated November 8, 2025 – 8:16 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The world champion in Red Bull will start the race in Brazil from the back of the field. Meanwhile, Lando Norris secured the pole.
Max Verstappen’s title dreams may have already been dashed in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The world champion was eliminated in the first section on Saturday and only got 16th starting position for the race on Sunday (from 6 p.m. in the t-online live ticker).
World Championship leader Lando Norris has secured the best starting position for the race. The McLaren driver took pole position in qualifying in São Paulo and relegated Kimi Antonelli to second place in the Mercedes. Charles Leclerc came third in the Ferrari ahead of World Championship runner-up Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren. Nico Hülkenberg finished tenth in the Sauber.
At the World Cup, Verstappen, who has made a remarkable comeback since the summer break, is 39 points behind leader Norris. Piastri is nine points behind his team rival. In order to keep his sights on his fifth world title in a row, Verstappen would actually have to gain points towards the top in every single race. In Brazil the chances of this have already fallen dramatically on Saturday.
“We now have to understand what we are doing wrong with the car,” said Verstappen on Sky, when asked about his remaining World Cup chances. It is “difficult to say” at what point in the past few weeks Red Bull lost momentum again. “I now had no grip, no feeling for the car, I couldn’t drive at the limit at all. That was of course bad.”
The Dutchman had already had problems with his car in the sprint a few hours earlier, but still managed to finish fourth. The team changed the setup for qualifying and the race, but this apparently increased the problems.
After the race weekend in Sao Paulo, Formula 1 will stop off in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.