Lando Norris won the São Paulo Grand Prix after a race that kept changing shape with the weather, the tyres and one costly mistake from the new world champion.
According to The Independent, Kimi Antonelli had taken control early at Interlagos, jumping past Norris at the damp start after Norris began from pole. But the race turned after Antonelli switched to dry tyres on a slippery track. He spun out of the lead and eventually finished fifth, a result that left the win to Norris and handed Mercedes the constructors’ title.
The race had already looked unstable before the lights went out. The Independent reported that Antonelli slid across the grass on his way to the grid and only narrowly avoided the barriers. That was the first warning that grip, in São Paulo, was going to decide more than raw pace.
Behind Norris, Max Verstappen drove from 21st on the grid to finish second, with Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar taking third. George Russell recovered to fourth after spinning at the pit-lane exit when he had been in contention for the podium. Lewis Hamilton, starting from the back after engine trouble in qualifying, climbed to ninth but no further.
Mercedes’ title mattered even with Antonelli’s race unravelling. The team had already seen him secure the drivers’ crown, and in Brazil it collected the other championship, the one that measures a team’s depth rather than one driver’s brilliance. That is partly why Antonelli’s spin landed with such force: the race showed both how quickly control can vanish in mixed conditions and how much margin a leading team can still carry into a difficult afternoon.
There was also frustration inside Mercedes before the start. The Independent said Russell believed an instruction to abort his final flying lap in qualifying had cost him pole position. In a wet weekend, tiny decisions kept becoming large ones.
Norris, though, was the driver who turned the disorder into a win.
Dua Mifsud 
Alex de Valletta 
Sophia Borg 