Brazil Grand Prix

Another delayed post, this time it’s because we were in the middle of moving house.

As I noted after the Mexico GP, there’s just one point between NOR and PIA, with VER 35 points behind and just four GP remaining.
It’s a sprint-format weekend, so there’s just one practice session for everyone to get used to the resurfaced Interlagos circuit.

Free Practice

1. FP1: NOR (1:09.975), PIA, HUL, ALO, BOR
   TSU took too much kerb in Turn 4, spinning the Red Bull into barriers
   VER also ran wide in T4, and then tried to block RUS when he rejoined the track
   ALB complained that the Williams’ brakes were very “grabby”
   New Brazilian dual-national HAM had a spin but continued safely
   Quite a few complaints about traffic

Sprint Qualifying

Sprint Qualifying session 1 (SQ1)
NOR 1:09.702
Chequered flag; bottom 5 are LAW, TSU, OCO, COL, SAI
COL P15, STR P16
NOR 1:09.627
TSU P18
SAI P20
LAW P17
STR P12, COL P16
Back of the grid: COL, LAW, TSU, OCO, SAI

Sprint Qualifying session 2
LEC and HAM both lock up
ALO 1:09.330
Yellow flag – LEC has spun, he lost the tail as he accelerated
Chequered flag; bottom 5 are HAM, ALB, GAS, BOR, BEA
No improvements due to the yellow flag
Middle of the grid: HAM, ALB, GAS, BOR, BEA

Sprint Qualifying session 3
RUS 1:09.556
ANT 1:09.340
LEC P3
PIA P3
NOR 1:09.271
NOR 1:09.243
Chequered flag; order is NOR, ANT, PIA, RUS, STR, LEC, HUL; no time yet from ALO, HAD, VER
ALO P4
HUL P8
VER P6
HAD P9
RUS P4
LEC P8
ANT P2
Front of the grid: NOR, ANT, PIA, RUS, ALO, VER, STR, LEC, HAD, HUL

Provisional sprint grid: NOR, ANT, PIA, RUS, ALO, VER, STR, LEC, HAD, HUL, HAM, ALB, GAS, BOR, BEA, COL, LAW, TSU, OCO, SAI
Penalties
HAM was given a reprimand for failing to slow under double yellow flags
TSU and SAI both have to start from the pit lane after modifications were made to their cars ailing to slow under double yellow flags

Sprint Race

There was rain earlier but the track has a clear dry line
Everyone running on softs or medium tyres
01/24: NOR leads into Turn 1
HAM has a great start and jumps up to P8
LAW taps BEA and spins the Haas; BEA recovers
06: PIA touches the kerb, spins into the tyre wall
HUL does the same, and then COL does it too
Safety Car deployed
07[SC]: Red flag so they can clean up Turn 1
08[SC]: SC leads everyone into the pit lane to wait for the restart
Wow, VER is being more petulant than usual! His engineer gives him some recommendations but the brat continues to whine; GP says “whether you take them or not is up to you”!!
Most (all?) switch tyres
SC leads them out of the pit lane
SC heads for the pit lane
09: RUS challenging teammate ANT into Turn 1
10/24: NOR, ANT, RUS, VER, ALO, LEC, HAM, STR, GAS, ALB, HAD, BOR, LAW, OCO, BEA, TSU, SAI, HUL; out: PIA, COL
17: OCO looking for a way past LAW, takes P13
21: NOR struggling for grip; ANT closing on him
22: LEC inside ALO for P5
24/24: BOR looks inside ALB but finds some damp track, loses control, hits the pit wall, spins across the track, into the wall on the outside of Turn 1 – huge impact! Did BOR’s steering wheel come off?
Looks like ALB has some of BOR’s debris under his Williams; HAD takes P10
Yellow flag neutralises the final lap
NOR takes the chequered flag

Provisional result: NOR, ANT, RUS, VER, LEC, ALO, HAM, GAS, STR, HAD
Penalties
BEA received a 5sec penalty and 1 penalty point for “driving in a manner deemed potentially dangerous”
The Final Sprint Classification says LAW had a 5sec penalty for causing a collision and references Stewards’ document no.41 but the official Decision Documents repository says 41 was recalled (deleted) and there’s no other similar doc, so I’m not sure whether that penalty stands or not; he was down on P16 so it doesn’t really make much difference

Qualifying

Qualifying session 1 (Q1)
VER fighting the Red Bull, has a nasty snap mid-corner; GP (engineer) says “Let us know if we can help you out with tools” but VER isn’t interested
NOR 1:09.656
Chequered flag; bottom 5 are OCO, COL, VER, TSU, BOR
VER P16
Back of the grid: VER, OCO, COL, TSU, BOR* (*no time)

Qualifying session 2
BEA 1:09.755
NOR 1:09.616
Middle of the grid: ALO, ALB, HAM, STR, SAI

Qualifying session 3
HUL 1:10.386
BEA 1:09.977
GAS P2
LEC 1:09.899
NOR P5
PIA 1:09.897
RUS P4
ANT P4
Order after the first run: PIA, LEC, BEA, ANT, RUS, GAS, LAW, HAD, HUL, NOR
NOR locks up into Turn 1
LEC 1:09.805
NOR 1:09.511
LAW P4
PIA P3
Chequered flag; order is NOR, LEC, PIA, LAW, BEA, ANT, HUL, RUS, GAS, HAD
HAD P4
HUL P8
GAS P8
BEA P6
LEC P2
ANT P2
Front of the grid: NOR, ANT, LEC, PIA, HAD, RUS, LAW, BEA, GAS, HUL

Provisional grid: NOR, ANT, LEC, PIA, HAD, RUS, LAW, BEA, GAS, HUL, ALO, ALB, HAM, STR, SAI, VER, OCO, COL, TSU, BOR*
Penalties
BOR didn’t run in Q1 so Sauber have to appeal to the stewards to be allowed to race
Haas made changes to OCO’s car during Parc Ferme so he’ll start from the pit lane; same for VER

Race

Pit lane is open; drivers can make their way to the grid
NOR leads everyone away on the formation lap

01/71: NOR leads through Turn 1
ALO runs wide; rejoins
Yellow flag – BOR is in the tyre wall; he feels he was squeezed by STR
SC deployed
Looks like HAM has lost his front wing; replay shows he got too close to COL in the final turn when he pulled out to overtake and clipped the rear of the Alpine

05/71[SC]: NOR, ANT, LEC, PIA, HAD, LAW, RUS, BEA, GAS, ALO
SC in at the end of this lap

06: PIA dives inside ANT; contact; ANT slides wide into LEC; ANT and LEC cut the corner; LEC’s lost his front-left tyre
PIA gets a 10sec penalty
TSU dives inside OCO but hits STR, spinning the Aston Martin
TSU gets a 10sec penalty too

07: VER pits; mediums go on

08: VSC deployed, ends

09: DRS enabled
RUS past LAW for P6

10/71: NOR, PIA*, ANT, HAD, RUS, LAW, BEA, GAS, ALB, SAI, ALO, HUL, TSU*, COL, HAM, VER, STR, OCO; out: LEC, BOR

12: RUS easily past HAD for P4

13: BEA dives inside LAW and takes P6
VER inside the damaged Ferrari of HAM for P15

18: VER takes P11 from ALO

21: VER past ALB; he’s now P5

34: ALB tries to defend but HUL takes P6

39: PIA pits; serves his 10sec penalty; rejoins P8

49: BEA tries to get inside HUL into Turn 1; it takes a couple of turns but he takes P7

55/71: VER pits; softs; rejoins P4
PIA takes P5 from LAW

57: BEA takes P6 from LAW

63: VER around the outside of RUS to take P3

NOR takes the chequered flag
Provisional result: NOR, ANT, VER, RUS, PIA, BEA, LAW, HAD, HUL, GAS
Penalties
TSU got 2 penalty points in addition to the 10sec penalty
TSU was also given a 10sec penalty for “Failure to properly serve a penalty during a pit stop”; that drops him to P17
HAM received 1 penalty point in addition to his 10sec penalty
LAW was given a 5sec penalty and 1 penalty point for causing a collision with BEA
PIA was given a 10sec penalty and 2 penalty points for causing a collision with ANT

Final Classification: NOR, ANT, VER, RUS, PIA, BEA, LAW, HAD, HUL, GAS; ALB, OCO, SAI, ALO, COL, STR, TSU
DNF: HAM, LEC, BOR

For the Drivers’ Championship, this means NOR is 24 points ahead of PIA, who in turn is 25 points ahead of VER.

[2025 calendar and driver line-up]