Autobayng News Team
This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
Here’s our report on today’s race.
Which driver impressed you the most this weekend? Cast your vote here.
What did you think of today’s grand prix? Rate the race here.
Lawson leads a huge train of cars home for seventh.
Antonelli holds on for second ahead of Verstappen.
Norris wins the Brazilian Grand Prix!
L71 Antonelli slithers wide and Verstappen is right on his tail!
Verstappen had a snap at the exit of Juncao which may have spoiled his last run at Antonelli.
L70 Verstappen is closer than ever but Antonelli is holding second place by his fingertips.
L69 Antonelli keeps Verstappen at arm’s length for now. Piastri is almost within DRS range of Russell for fourth place. There’s a close four-way fight for seventh between Lawson, Hulkenberg, Hadjar and Gasly.
L68 Verstappen gets within DRS range and closes in rapidly on Antonelli.
L67 Verstappen is poised to break within DRS range of Antonelli.
Verstappen easily passes Russell with DRS.
L61 Verstappen is 1.7s off Russell and almost a second per lap faster.
Incredibly, Red Bull just told Verstappen he has a chance to finish second if he can control his tyre degradation. He also has two Mercedes to pass, but they’re both on older and harder tyres, and Russell is having to back off to manage his brakes.
Piastri has no chance of catching Verstappen who was nine tenths of a second faster than him in the middle sector alone on that lap. Not much wrong with the Red Bull’s set-up today.
L54 Red Bull do pit Verstappen. Norris retakes the lead, Antonelli moves into second, Russell third. Verstappen rejoins in fourth on one of the fresh sets of soft tyres he saved through his Q1 elimination yesterday. Lawson is fifth ahead of Piastri who just did the fastest lap.
Will Red Bull pit Verstappen again? Norris will only catch him with three laps to go at his current rate.
Piastri pits and he rejoins in seventh place.
L50 McLaren pit Norris and he’s going to come out close to his team mate. Verstappen leads!
L43 Bearman pits: he was about to come under attack from Verstappen which would have cost him time.
L39 Piastri pits, serves his 10-second penalty, and heads out on a fresh set of softs. That has dropped him behind Verstappen, the pair separated by Gasly and Lawson.
Hamilton pits to serve his penalty and is now heading in to retire. No points today for Ferrari.
Verstappen has made his second pit stop.
L34 Hulkenberg passes Albon for sixth at turn one. Tsunoda has been given another 10-second time penalty for failing to serve the first one.
L33 Norris easily passes Verstappen with DRS.
L29 Norris pits and rejoins behind Verstappen in fourth place on a set of soft tyres.
Hamilton’s been penalised five seconds for causing a collision with
Tsunoda has been noted for failing to serve his time penalty correctly when he came into the pits.
L25 Tsunoda pits in front of Antonelli.
L24 Antonelli picks off Stroll and Colapinto in short order.
Mercedes have dropped Antonelli behind a group of cars not within DRS range of each other. He’s not got clear track but perhaps they think he can make quick enough progress through them.
L22 Antonelli pits, he comes out behind Stroll. That promotes Verstappen to fourth place.
L18 The stewards’ decision has probably not deprived us of a fight for the lead as Piastri had already dropped three-and-a-half seconds behind Norris.
Piastri’s been given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
Tsunoda given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
L12 Russell passes Hadjar for fourth with DRS.
L11 Hamilton, now the only remaining Ferrari, is working over Colapinto for 14th. Verstappen is gaining on him.
Norris quickly re-establishes his lead over Piastri. Russell has split the Racing Bulls for fifth place. The Tsunoda-Stroll incident is now under investigation.
L10 Race control have noted a collision between Tsunoda and Stroll.
Bonnington to Antonelli: “We think the car is fine.”
L9 The race restart, Norris is just half a second ahead of Piastri.
L8 Verstappen pits with a puncture and drops to 18th.
L7 Virtual Safety Car
Leclerc: “Front left suspension is broken.”
Piastri goes down the inside of Antonelli and they make contact. Antonelli hits Leclerc and the Ferrari driver loses a tyre.
L5 Safety Car coming in. Norris did a very late restart yesterday.
Bortoleto found the barrier while racing with Stroll. Hamilton lost his front wing trying to pass Colapinto.
L2 Safety Car deployed. Hamilton has front wing damage.
Bortoleto’s crashed again! He’s stopped at Bico de Pato.
The Brazilian Grand Prix is go and Norris keeps his lead from Antonelli. Piastri defends from the Racing Bulls. Hamilton has a terrible start and is 18th. Alonso goes off at Ferradura.
The drivers head off on their formation lap. Norris can expect a strong attack from Antonelli at the start on softer tyres than him. But there could be a lot of action further back with drivers on all three compounds.
Outside the top 10 Alonso, Stroll, Tsunoda, Verstappen and Ocon have chosen hards, Albon and Colapinto are on mediums and Hamilton, Sainz and Bortoleto are on softs.
Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, Russell and Hulkenberg on mediums. The other drivers in the top 10 will start on softs.
McLaren are warning their drivers that Juncao, turn 12, might be damp.
Race control say there is a 40% chance of rain during the race.
When Yuki Tsunoda started the sprint race from the pit lane yesterday he had to be waved out by a flag marshal as the exit lights were broken. However they are illuminated today so it looks like Verstappen’s exit will be controlled by them.
More problems for Verstappen? “Just for information this engine vibrates a lot” he told his team during his preparation laps.
Russell says “rain intensifying very little”.
Verstappen reports its “drizzling a little bit here” during his reconnaissance lap.
The drivers are queued up at the pit exit to start their reconnaissance laps. Verstappen leads them out in his reconfigured RB21. Besides the new power unit, Red Bull have also made changes to his suspension.
Piastri has been quicker at Interlagos than in the previous two races yet still seems out of sorts. He crashed in the sprint race yesterday and fell from first to fourth on the final runs in qualifying.
At the other end of the field, Lando Norris has a huge chance to build on the extended championship lead he took yesterday by winning the sprint race while team mate Oscar Piastri crashed out.
Max Verstappen has it all to do today to keep his championship chances alive. He qualified 16th but Red Bull have decided to start him from the pit lane with a fresh power unit and another change of set-up. Esteban Ocon will also start from the pits.
We’re one hour away from the start of the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix.
2025 Brazilian Grand Prix
- Red Bull were faster than us in Brazilian Grand Prix, says Norris
- Hamilton given penalty point for race-ruining collision with Colapinto
- Tsunoda given two penalty points for crashing into Stroll
- Antonelli is as much to blame for crash as Piastri, says Leclerc
- Norris wins, Verstappen recovers third from the pits, penalised Piastri fifth
