Crashes, penalties, and damages to cars—this 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix was full of surprises. Starting P17 on the grid, Max Verstappen was well decided to keep his chances in the championship alive, despite a hungry Lando Norris in the lead.
As it was announced before the start of the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was starting from the pit lane. Not a good operation for him, as he is still in the championship battle, being 39 points behind Lando Norris. On the other hand, Oscar Piastri is also only nine points behind the other side of the garage. Before the start of the race, a 40% risk of rain was announced.
A Chaotic Start
As the lights went green, Lando Norris kept the lead. Behind, Isack Hadjar tried to take P4 away from Piastri. In a heated battle, Fernando Alonso went wide and lost a position. Gabriel Bortoleto touched the wall on Turn 10, bringing out the yellow flag and later, a safety car, but most importantly, made a stop to his home race. Lewis Hamilton completely lost his front wing while trying to overtake Colapinto, but he touched the Alpine’s car. He picked up damage on his floor. Yuki Tsunoda pitted on the second lap.
At the restart, Lando Norris managed to keep the lead again. Behind him, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was a bit slow on the restart, which gave the opportunity to Charles Leclerc to try and overtake. However, Oscar Piastri tried to overtake both of them, but with the Mercedes closing the door, the Italian driver touched the Monegasque’s tyres, resulting in car number 16’s tyre exploding. He had to abandon the race. The race director decided to put out a virtual safety car. Max Verstappen had to box, following a puncture, probably from the earlier events.
A Deluge of Penalties
At the restart, Oscar Piastri came really close to his teammate, but not close enough to overtake. With the DRS, George Russell overtook Isack Hadjar for P4. Yuki Tsunoda took a 10-second penalty for a collision with Lance Stroll after an optimistic overtake. On lap 15, Lewis Hamilton made his second pit stop, insisting that the car is really difficult to drive with his damage. Oscar Piastri also took a 10-second penalty for the earlier incident with Antonelli and Leclerc. The first pit stops for the soft tyres began to appear on Laps 18 to 20. In the meantime, Max Verstappen overtook Alonso for P9 and Alex Albon for P8.
Lewis Hamilton took 5 seconds for causing a collision, while we learnt that Yuki Tsunoda didn’t serve his penalty well in the pit. He took a 10-second penalty again for that. Andrea Kimi Antonelli overtook Albon for P5. Lando Norris pitted for used soft tyres on lap 31, probably for a two-stop strategy. A fierce battle for a couple of laps happened between Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar for the eighth place. With a 43-second gap to the driver in front of him, Lewis Hamilton boxed to retire the car on lap 39. Not a single point for Ferrari in this race. Oliver Bearman had a 3.9-second pit stop after his left front tyre was a bit stuck.
Is a Strategy Race Paying off ?
McLaren 81’s side wanted to keep their driver on track and undercut two drivers with the help of Max Verstappen. A strategy that the Aussie was not really fond of. On lap 48, some drivers began to make their second and last pit stop, such as Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg had a beautiful battle for seventh. In the meantime, Oracle Red Bull Racing seemed to struggle to count to ten, with them failing to serve Tsunoda’s penalty for the second time.
Ten laps remained, and the top three were Norris, Antonelli, and Russell, but on lap 63, Max Verstappen overtook the first Mercedes in front of him and took his place on the podium. He came really close to Antonelli with less than a second with only two laps remaining. The Italian driver made a mistake on Turn 11, giving the opportunity to the Dutch one to come even closer. In the end, Antonelli kept the second place, behind Lando Norris, and Verstappen closed the podium. With that win, Lando Norris now has a 24-point lead.