- Lando Norris is just 45 points behind Max Verstappen with 132 up for grabs
- Oscar Piastri yielded the lead on lap 22 of lap 24, guaranteeing Norris the win
- Verstappen outmuscled Charles Leclerc but couldn’t find a way past Piastri
Lando Norris was given a helping hand to a crucial victory in the sprint in Brazil to narrow his world championship lead to Max Verstappen.
The McLaren driver was gifted the lead by pole-man Oscar Piastri, who yielded on lap 22 of 24 going into Turn 4. The win was Norris’s first in a sprint, with Verstappen third behind the two papaya cars.
It means Norris’s deficit stands at 45 with 132 points remaining heading into tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
The two McLarens got off the start cleanly. Piastri was not giving an inch at this stage and cut across Norris without danger but assertively. The top eight held position, as Verstappen braked hard into the first corner.
The order at the front was to remain largely the same among the front-runners, though ultimately Verstappen took third place off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth.
Lando Norris won the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race after Oscar Piastri ceded the lead
Piastri began on pole but allowed Norris to pass him with just two laps remaining
The result meant Norris reduced Max Verstappen’s title advantage to just 45 points
It meant Verstappen took six points to Norris’s eight.
Norris was making his point about team orders over the radio as he lay second behind Piastri, who started 70 points behind his garage-mate. ‘I’m close,’ intoned Norris, and then later said: ‘I’m not sure what we are doing here. We spoke about this.’
Piastri was told to give Norris DRS range. Nothing happened at this mid-point. Leclerc was perhaps too close to them.
With seven laps remaining Norris was told, ‘Suggest red A4,’ by race engineer Will Joseph, presumably referring to the required mode. ‘Yeah, I’ll overtake,’ said Norris.
Moments later he was told that the team were happy to stick as they were for now, and that the switch would be made on the last lap.
But the pivotal swap came fractionally earlier, and fortunately so, because Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas gave up on him and a virtual safety car (VSC) was deployed.
Verstappen outmuscled Charles Leclerc to finish third in a display of damage limitation
The world champion collected six points overall, two less than challenger Norris
Lewis Hamilton (right) qualified 11th and finished there on a strangely poor day for the veteran
A final lap of action materialised and Verstappen pressed Piastri hard but could not find a way through.
‘It was always the plan to hand over the place, but it wasn’t easy to do because we didn’t have a gap.
‘I’d have preferred to have won but we have spoken about this for months. We knew it was something that could and would happen at some point.’
Norris, who shook hands Piastri gratefully after climbing out of his car, agreed that transposing positions earlier would not have been easy, saying: ‘We did the best job we could.’
It was another strangely poor day for Lewis Hamilton. Having qualified 11th, he finished 11th. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell began and ended sixth.
British teenager Ollie Bearman, drafted in by Haas after Kevin Magnussen fell ill, finished 14th, having started 10th.
