Lando Norris has further extended his championship lead over Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen after a thrilling weekend of action-packed racing.   With only three races left and one sprint weekend there is only 49 points between the top three in the driver standings as it all comes down to this.  

Lando Norris has further extended his championship lead over Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen after a thrilling weekend of action-packed racing.  

With only three races left and one sprint weekend there is only 49 points between the top three in the driver standings as it all comes down to this.   

MCLAREN: 

Lando dominated all sessions of the weekend topping the time sheets in Free Practise, taking Sprint Pole Position, victory in the Sprint Race, Grand Prix Pole Position and finishing the weekend off with the main race win.  

With nearly an entire grand prix win ahead in points, Piastri chances of the drivers’ championship seems to be slipping away after only finishing P5 and taking just 10 points from the entire weekend.  

It seemed like a difficult weekend for the Australian after crashing out of the Sprint Race from P3 and receiving a 10 second time penalty in the main race following a collision between himself, Antonelli and Leclerc resulting in the Ferrari's DNF result.  

MAX VERSTAPPEN: 

The four-time world champion Max Verstappen has a qualifying to forget after being knocked out in Q1 for the first time since 2021 after finishing P16.  

Moving to race day it was announced by Red Bull that he would start from the pit lane after taking the car out of Parc Ferme following an engine change.  

After storming through the field on opposing strategies to his rival’s, Verstappen crossed the finish line in 3rd making it his 124-podium finishing just 0.362s behind 2nd place Kimi Antonelli and keeping him still in the run for the championship.  

FERRARI:

 Ferrari had a weekend to forget at São Paulo starting off with both cars looking like they were on the back foot for pace in the only free practise session. Moving into Sprint Qualifying and Lewis Hamilton failed to make SQ3, qualifying only P11 and his teammate only P8. 

Both drivers ended up in the points in the Sprint Race with Leclerc finishing in P5 earning 4 points and Hamilton finishing in P7 collecting just 2 points. However, moving into Quali, Lewis again failed to make it into the top 10 shoot out starting 13th on the grid for Sunday’s race.  

With Charles starting P3 and Lewis P13, there was hope and optimism going into the race. On the opening lap, Hamilton made contact damaging his floor and required a front wing change dropping him right to the back of the grid. The damage resulted in him retiring the car on lap 34.  

Leclerc’s race also ended in a DNF after being innocently taken out in Turn 1 by Antonelli after a result of a lock up from Piastri on lap 5 after the safety car re-start.  

All in all, not the weekend Ferrari had in mind moving down 2 positions in the constructor’s championship going from 2nd to 4th with Mercedes and Red Bull both moving up one.  

After a crazy, jam-packed weekend the top 3 take away’s for me would be: 

• Kimi Antonelli’s performance all weekend, outqualifying and outscoring his teammate George Russel in both Qualifying sessions and both races 

• Ollie Bearman in the points for a second weekend running finishing P6 placing him 13th in the drivers’ championship, just 4 points behind Sainz in 12th  

• Max Verstappens pit lane to podium result finishing in P3 after a qualifying session to forget