“Woking breathes a sigh of relief.”
That was the message from F1TV commentator Alex Jacques on Lap 23 as race officials at the Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix signaled for a Virtual Safety Car. Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg had slid off the track with smoke coming out of the back of his VF-24, with pole-sitter Oscar Piastri in the lead and teammate Lando Norris behind him in second.
Of course, the bigger story was the fight for the Drivers’ Championship. Because with Max Verstappen lingering behind the McLaren duo, starting the day in fourth, Saturday’s F1 Sprint Race offered Norris and McLaren a tremendous chance for the British driver to pick up a few points on Verstappen in their battle for the Drivers’ Championship.
But as the laps ticked down, Norris trailed Piastri around the track, as Verstappen battled Charles Leclerc for P3 behind the duo. With radio messages between Norris and his race engineer indicating that at some point the order would be given for Piastri to swap positions, such a move became more and more perilous. With Verstappen eventually overtaking Leclerc to slide into third, it almost seemed they had missed the window.
Opening up more questions about how the Woking-based team had handled this entire season.
But when Hülkenberg slid off the track, and the looming threat of a Virtual Safety Car lurking over the track at Interlagos, the order finally came. Piastri pulled to the side, Norris charged into the lead, and with only a pair of laps remaining, McLaren was moments away from the one-two finish they wanted, in the order they needed for Norris to maximize his chances at catching Verstappen in the Drivers’ title race.
The green flag flew and Verstappen got a run on Piastri momentarily, putting the Australian driver under threat for second. But Piastri closed the door and followed Norris to the checkered flag for the one-two finish McLaren aimed for at the start of the day.
Speaking after the race, Norris gave full credit to his teammate.
“Yeah, not proud about it but we work well as a team together that’s why I thank Oscar. But we’ve done a great job as team, today was the result we wanted, Oscar deserved it, but we did what we have to do. I thank him and the team, we have great pace, and I’m looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow,” said Norris to Naomi Schiff trackside after the race. “We executed it well.”
“It was a bit tricky to be honest. Very bumpy as we know. The racing line was incredibly narrow, you miss it by a tire width and you’re in all sorts of trouble. Another great day for the team and a lot of points, so I think we learned a lot for the race tomorrow and, yeah, happy,” said Piastri to Schiff.
“I think we’ve got a few things we want to try and improve a bit for qualifying this afternoon and for the race tomorrow, but I think we’re in decent shape,” added Piastri.
Norris’ win, with Verstappen finishing back in third, trimmed the Red Bull driver’s lead to just 45 points with four Grands Prix, and one more F1 Sprint Race, remaining on the schedule.
Here are the full results:
It should also be noted that Verstappen is currently under investigation by race officials for a safety car infringement, with stewards looking to see if Verstappen pulled out of the single-file line before the green flag flew near the end of the race.
Should the results hold and Verstappen not face a penalty, this was also a tremendous result for McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. With Ferrari vaulting into second in the Constructors’ Championship standings with Carlos Sainz Jr.’s win in Mexico City, McLaren’s one-two finish Saturday in São Paulo saw them bank 15 points, six more than the nine Ferrari banked with a fourth place finish from Leclerc, and a fifth-place finish from Sainz. Their front-row lockout also saw McLaren gain eight points over Red Bull, who added seven points to their tally with Verstappen’s P3, and a P8 finish from Sergio Pérez.
That means at the moment McLaren leads the Constructors’ Championship with 581 points, followed by Ferrari in second with 546, and Red Bull in third with 519 points on the year.
But the big points are given out on Sunday, meaning qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix later today will be another big step in this Formula 1 season. And with rain in the forecast the rest of the weekend in São Paulo, anything could happen.
Which has been the story of this entire season.
