Lando Norris in a McLaren won the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Englishman preceded the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. World champion Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes was fifth and risked a penalty for having obstructed Colapinto's Alpine in the garage, while the Ferraris did not go beyond seventh place with Charles Leclerc and ninth place with Lewis Hamilton.
Yesterday:
Under the water of Interlagos, in a deluge of rain and grid penalties, comes the call of the old world champion, still in office for a few weeks. Lando Norris puts himself ahead of everyone on a long and complicated day on the very wet Brazilian circuit, preceding in his McLaren the two Mercedes of a furious George Russell, who wanted pole at all costs despite five positions to serve, and Kimi Antonelli, who inherits second position from his teammate at tomorrow's start.
Among the top five in the drivers' standings, only the new world champion from Bologna did not incur sanctions due to interventions on the cars and engines that exceeded the permitted seasonal limit. Teammate Russell changes a component of the power unit and loses five positions, while for the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Hamilton it is 10.
The Englishman, however, due to problems in free practice, is forced to replace the entire power unit and therefore starts from the back of the grid, where he will find Max Verstappen company behind him, on whose Red Bull various interventions were necessary.
It's raining on the circuit, and the intensity increases just before the start of Q1: we start on time, but after less than a lap the drivers - soaked also from waiting for the green light in the downpour - are forced to return to the pits, with water inside their suits and even in their helmets. From there it's a push and pull with the weather, which alternates heavy downpours with clearing ups: after an hour of waiting and doubts, from the drivers and also from the team principals (including Vasseur), qualifying resumes again in the rain, which then - progressively - clears up.
The wet and old-fashioned Q1 does not intimidate the child of the country Rafael Camara, who on his absolute debut in Formula 1 qualifies his Haas for the following session. In Q2 Hamilton takes to the track to set the time, Verstappen does not and therefore - in the battle between super champions who will start from the back - the Englishman earns 20th place, the Dutchman 21st.
In Q3, then, it was a race against time because the rain began to intensify again: Norris immediately put himself in front of everyone, Russell had the pace to respond to him but from the garage they told him to interrupt the lap: in the radio team, the Englishman went into a rage and even after the race he didn't moderate the conditions: "Congratulations to Lando but I was doing a pole lap, there was an error of judgment on our part and we will have to understand why - the Mercedes driver says harshly -. Tomorrow will depend on the weather, I haven't felt this confident in a while, but unfortunately when it mattered we didn't execute."
Satisfaction for Norris, who once again placed in front of everyone: "It was a long day and a great qualifying, there were no easy conditions on the track - says Lando -. It's the first time we drove like this in the wet, we were good at not making mistakes". The one who is happy and carefree is Antonelli, who however does not avoid analysis and self-criticism: "It was very complicated, I had never driven here in the wet - confesses the new world champion, highly acclaimed by the fans -.
I struggled a bit with the intermediate tires and made a big mistake, but it's still third place. We'll see what the weather will be like, it's very unpredictable, but we'll try to be ready for anything."
