Mercedes in a spin as Norris steers upgraded McLaren to F1 victory in Brazil

Amid the apparent Interlagos weather-randomised event, there was one pillar of performance which remained true throughout the weekend. Whether Lando Norris and McLaren would have been the class of the field the way they were if qualifying and the race had been dry we’ll never know. But in mixed conditions they emerged as the dominant force once an early Mercedes challenge had faded. Not even Max Verstappen at Interlagos was enough to put them under pressure, although he did take a great P2 from 21st on the grid.

The power unit penalties from four within the top teams (Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton starting at the back, George Russell down five places, Charles Leclerc down 10) gave Norris and McLaren had a head-start admittedly. But there’s a case to be made that Norris – driving a McLaren with a new front wing design – may have had everyone handled regardless.

“I’m not sure where we’d have been in the dry,” he said afterwards, “but in the practices it looked like maybe we were one- or two-tenths off [Mercedes]. But when conditions are tricky and the car is like it is, when it’s a bit colder and the rear is more solid and stable, when it’s more like I need it, then we’re flying. It was a bit like that today.”

He might not even have set pole had Russell not encountered Alex Albon for his final Q3 lap when the track was at its quickest. Maybe, maybe not. But the Mercedes was the only other car which looked to have the potential to have been fastest. Russell’s penalty put the new world champion Kimi Antonelli onto the front row instead and from there he burst into the lead and initially left Norris behind. In fact Norris was even passed on the opening lap by Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls and by the time he repassed it, Antonelli was 5sec up the road and lapping over half-a-second faster.

This was on the intermediates that the wet-but-initially-drying track had obliged everyone to start on. This would be a wet/dry/wet race with two critical tyre change moments from inters-to-wets and back again to inters. The three phases of the race went as follows:

First inters stint

Antonelli pulled his lead out to over 8sec and Norris was fighting hard to keep Russell behind him by the time the track was becoming ready for slicks after 15 laps.

Meanwhile Verstappen had vaulted from 21st to fifth with his standard from-the-back Interlagos wet track masterclass, gaining on team-mate Isack Hadjar. Hamilton had initially made even more spectacular progress, up to ninth on the first lap from 20th. But the rear tyres of the Ferrari quickly became too hot and he sank almost as quickly as he’d risen. He was the first therefore to switch to slicks and when he immediately set the fastest sector 2 time so far, most everyone piled in: but not Antonelli or Verstappen.

Inters to slicks

Mercedes and Red Bull respectively prioritised their other car. Antonelli’s lead was such that he wasn’t going to lose position by stopping a lap later but Russell might have been able to have jumped past Norris. Hence he was prioritised. While at Red Bull Hadjar got priority as the lead car and Verstappen was under no threat from Lawson behind. So Antonelli and Verstappen each came in on lap 17 rather than 16.

Had Russell not spun 180-degrees in the pit exit road (losing him places to Hadjar, Lawson and Oscar Piastri) he might have been able to offer Norris a stronger challenge for victory than Antonelli subsequently could. Because once onto the soft slicks Kimi’s car became very difficult. “There’s something weird,” he reported. The car was pulling to one side under acceleration and almost turning itself into left-handers. Russell later reported a similar thing in his final stint. The working theory at the team is that it was simply a tyre temperature and pressure mismatch across the axles.

Which is quite feasible. While the Interlagos layout and surface gets the tyres quickly up to temperature, the cool conditions can make a mismatch between the more loaded right-hand rear and the less-stressed left-hand, particularly if you press too hard when they are cold. The extra lap Antonelli did over Norris before stopping meant he had to push hard on the out-lap as Norris came at him on tyres already up to temperature. It’s possible this is where the weird sensation came from. But after four laps of pressure from Norris, Antonelli dropped the car into the Senna Esses, spinning across the grass and rejoining now behind the McLaren and with Hadjar’s Red Bull about to pass him too. Four laps later he went off again, losing him a further place to Verstappen.

Norris now led Hadjar by over 3sec and would gradually extend that advantage through the stint. It was a little surprising that Verstappen was making no real inroads into the 3.5sec margin to team-mate Hadjar though. “I think something must have been damaged at some point,” said Verstappen, “because as soon as I got onto the slicks I had extreme oversteer in the high-speed sections. It had been really good on the inters but when I went back onto the inters for the last stint it was totally different to how it had been in the first stint.”

But a big double moment through the Senna Esses for Hadjar on the 35th lap brought Verstappen onto his tail. At that point Red Bull asked him to cede position, which he did without complaint. But with the later rejoinder of, “If he cannot get by Lando he gives it back to me? Don’t forget to come back to me.”

This was a great performance from Hadjar, further cementing his role as a properly competitive Red Bull support. But the awkward question he asked was resolved in a different way. Further rain looked likely, but not yet. Meantime, everyone’s softs had given their best after about 20 laps. The degradation limitation here is wear, not thermal. But would it be worth hanging on with old tyres, so as to save a stop and get straight onto inters when the rain came? That was the dilemma upon the pitwalls.

Verstappen had answered strongly in the negative when asked if he thought he could get to the end on this set if required. Hadjar had replied strongly in the positive. So Verstappen was brought in on lap 45 for another set of softs. His speed was such that McLaren was obliged to bring Norris in four laps later. It became obvious that the fresh tyres were so much faster that unless the rain arrived soon, there was no point staying on the old rubber – and Hadjar was brought in five laps after Verstappen. Those five laps bought Verstappen an 8sec gap over Hadjar and there was no longer any question of swapping positions back.

With its early competitive position having faded, Mercedes was pinning its hopes on that rain arriving in time to buy it a big pitstop saving and initially both cars stayed out, putting Antonelli in the lead but being caught by Norris and the Red Bulls at almost 2sec per lap. Kimi was pitted for his second set of softs on lap 53, but Russell stayed out, putting him temporarily ahead of Hadjar but with Isack on his fresh tyres easily picking him off. Russell stayed with the gamble and his saving of a stop had put him ahead of team-mate Antonelli, but on his fresh tyres it didn’t take long for Kimi to repass and set off after Hadjar’s third place. Within a few laps he was on the Red Bull’s tail and pushing hard.

Slicks back to inters

But the rain was arriving, gently at first but increasingly insistent. Russell gambled on an early switch, on lap 61 and that timing proved spot-on. Most of the others – Norris, Verstappen, Hadjar and Antonelli included – were in on the next lap. Russell’s earlier stop had wiped most of his deficit to Antonelli and as Kimi had a big moment at Turn 4, so Russell was able to repass again. But Hadjar was now out of reach. The fourth and fifth place points of Russell and Antonelli secured Mercedes the constructors’ championship though.

Norris meanwhile was imperious out-front, Verstappen in no shape to offer any challenge and falling ever-further behind.

Oscar Piastri had been patchily fast but the late first stop lost him time and put him in traffic, ruining his strategy. He was a distant sixth, ahead of a fierce battle between Charles Leclerc and Lawson, with the Ferrari driver going by with the help of a nudge of wheels. The Ferraris – with Hamilton ninth ahead of Nico Hülkenberg’s Audi – were occasionally quick in between many laps of under-temperature slick tyres. Had they not been hampered by power unit penalties and qualified normally, perhaps their true potential would have been shown to be very different. But on such a day as this, lagging so far behind Mercedes, Red Bull and, especially, McLaren in how quickly it could generate tyre temperature was a hideous handicap.

So Norris took his third victory of the season. With the exception of Madring – which was just plain unlucky – every time the McLaren has had the pace this year, Norris has converted it into a sure-footed victory. “We’re not yet where we need to be,” he said after taking what he reckoned was his best win to date, “The upgrades on the car worked and without them we probably wouldn’t have won. But it’s still not enough. Today was about strategy, pitstops and driving well but we know we are not at world championship level yet. There is still work to do.”