With a gifted victory, Lando Norris reduced the gap in the World Cup standings to Max Verstappen by another two points. The Brit won the sprint race over around 100 kilometers in São Paulo on Saturday ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. As announced, the Australian gave Norris the victory. Norris is now 45 points behind Verstappen in the standings.
After Piastri started from pole ahead of Norris, he let his stable rival pass shortly before the end. «I’m not proud of it, but we worked together as a team. “So thanks go to Oscar,” said Norris. Max Verstappen came third in the Red Bull.
Investigations against Verstappen
However, three hours before qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, the defending champion and world championship leader was investigated for a possible violation of the rules during a virtual safety car phase. In the race on Sunday (6 p.m. CET/Sky), the three-time world champion has to drop five starting positions in his Red Bull due to another unauthorized engine change.
Right from the start and on the way to the first corner, Verstappen tried to make up positions from fourth place on the grid. At the front, Piastri easily defended his pole position against Norris, who was not exactly a top starter, while behind him Charles Leclerc also got off reasonably well in the Ferrari. Verstappen dared to attack on the inside, but had to break off the attack with smoking tires.
“Take your time, Max”
That was good for Norris. The World Cup chaser had to continue to catch up on points; Verstappen traveled from Mexico City to São Paulo with 47 more. “Take your time, Max. You know how the game goes,” Verstappen was radioed into the car from his command post.
Piastri, Norris, Leclerc and Verstappen separated themselves somewhat from the rest of the field and were usually around two seconds apart. It was also clear that the offer of victory that Piastri had made to his teammate after his pole drive would be difficult to realize. Especially since the 24-year-old Norris had difficulty following closely behind the 23-year-old Australian at times.
Behind him, Verstappen whispered that Leclerc was making so many mistakes in front of him. It took a while until McLaren could carry out the planned swap of places; before that, Verstappen grabbed Leclerc on the start and finish straight. This meant that things would get even more tricky for the two McLarens with the change of position.
They delayed it as long as possible. On the 22nd of 24 laps, Piastri allowed Norris to overtake him for his first sprint victory. It shouldn’t have been much later. Because Nico Hülkenberg had broken down in his Haas and triggered a virtual safety car phase – that meant: overtaking was prohibited. When the safety car went back into the pits, Verstappen tried to tackle Norris, but dropped out and settled for third place.
