Wet weather mastery by Norris, Verstappen makes Brazil F1's must-see race

SÃO PAULO -- After a week of plaudits for Kimi Antonelli, it was his predecessors Lando Norris and Max Verstappen who turned in two very different kinds of champions' drives in the rain at Interlagos, which again proved why it has become such a popular and integral part of Formula 1's calendar.

On the grid ahead of Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix, it felt like all the ingredients of a guaranteed box-office classic were there: the twists and turns of the Interlagos circuit, changing weather in the São Paulo sky, and the prospect of Verstappen at the back of the field with a brand-new engine, perfectly placed to add to his long list of epic wet-weather drives. As is so often the case with Brazil's popular grand prix -- which will be staying on the calendar until 2035 after securing an extension this weekend -- it delivered.

The story of the opening lap centered around the grid's four world champions.

On a wet but slowly drying track, Norris' slow getaway allowed Antonelli to charge down into Turn 1 in the lead, with Norris then losing position to a superb Liam Lawson move around the outside. At the back end of the grid was box-office stuff. The timing screen initially seemed to be showing Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen rising through the order as though in error -- the pair were scything through the pack like knives through butter. By the end of the lap one, Hamilton (who, like Verstappen, came into the race with a big engine penalty) had gained 11 places to ninth, while Verstappen had gained 10 places to 12th.

Both of those things at either end of the grid set the tone for what would come later, with Antonelli and Norris finding their afternoons going in opposite directions as the race unfolded from there, and Hamilton and Verstappen's monster starts unfolding very differently in the laps that followed.

Norris' dominant drive

Norris would later joke he could not repeat what he thought when Lawson got past him, as he would likely get fined. That's perhaps not surprising given how much of an opportunity the race had appeared to be. A masterful pole position on Saturday and the changing weather seemed like a perfect way for Norris to fight for his and McLaren's third win of the year.

The key moment came on lap 20.

Norris, who had crucially pitted one lap earlier to make the crucial swap from intermediate wet to the soft dry tire, was reaping the benefits of tires that had gotten up to temperature much quicker. Antonelli, by contrast, was struggling massively, suddenly finding a curiously imbalanced car that he lost all confidence in. Suddenly rattled and spooked by his misbehaving car, Antonelli looked wobbly out on track, meaning what followed felt somewhat inevitable. As they approached Turn 1, the Italian spun and lost the lead, letting Norris by.

"I forced Kimi to push, he went into a mistake I could capitalize on," Norris said later.

From there, he was impervious, turning in a faultless drive to claim his third win of the season, nearly 15 seconds up the road on Verstappen by the checkered flag. The Red Bull driver had started from the back of the field but appeared to have at least muscled his way back into the contest by mid-distance as he passed teammate Isack Hadjar into second. Even once that had happened, Norris was untouchable out in front -- whether it was on the intermediates when the track was wet, or on the slicks when the track was dry, Norris had Verstappen's number when it came to pace.

"It's up there [with my best wins] in terms of challenge to achieve," Norris said after the contest. "Not been easy for all reasons possible! Conditions, weather, important to not make mistakes. A lot thrown at everyone on a day like today, but probably our best race in terms of execution ... From my side not making any mistakes, which is so easy to do. Great performance from the team."

It was a fitting venue to do it, too. Norris still has the No. 1 on his car but lost his status as defending world champion seven days earlier. Interlagos also provided an easy example for critics to knock him in the past -- his nightmarish, error-strewn race in 2024 felt at the time like it might end up being career-defining, and the fact it contrasted so strongly with Verstappen's famous charge from the back of the field to victory in the pouring rain, a result that effectively ended Norris' hopes of beating the Dutchman to the title, seemed to just underline their difference in that type of weather.

The following two visits to Interlagos have undone that reputational damage. Norris' 2025 double of the sprint and grand prix victories were a hammer blow to struggling teammate Oscar Piastri last season, and this year came in treacherous conditions on a knife edge.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella said it highlighted where Norris had blossomed into a far more rounded driver.

"When Lando operates at his best, he's definitely one of the best drivers on the grid," Stella said on Sunday evening. "And we have seen that in these conditions, like yesterday, it's not the first time that when you have mixed variable conditions, he kind of is one of the fastest in finding the limit. And you have seen this today as well when the track was in the middle between dry and wet, it was when he was probably gaining most throughout the races on anybody else. I think he's very sensitive in understanding how much grip is available and very complete as a driver from a technical point of view, in terms of understanding how to deploy his tools to use the grip that is available."

Stella suggested these are traits of Norris that do not get the recognition that often goes to his rivals.

"Adaptability is actually probably the most important feature that you may want to possess as a driver," the McLaren team principal said. "I think that's one that should be definitely acknowledged and recognized for Lando. When there's a need to understand what's best, how to operate, he's definitely a master.

"And hopefully, let me say, we don't need to [always] rely on these qualities. We just want to make sure that we can offer Lando and Oscar a competitive car, such that they can just drive a little bit more easily, because still our car remains pretty difficult."

Norris will look to end his title-defense season on a high from here, with three races to go. It has been a frustrating year, which started with an uncompetitive and unreliable McLaren, and featured a brief flurry as a title outsider when he won races either side of the summer break in Hungary and the Netherlands.

Max the rain master

While Norris might not always get the plaudits for what he can do in changeable conditions, there has never been much doubt over what Verstappen is capable of when presented with stormy skies and a wet track. It's why most who ESPN asked on Sunday in the paddock still fancied Verstappen as a contender for victory before the race, despite the fact his view at the start was of 20 other cars parked in front of him on the sloped start-finish straight. Lining up directly ahead of him, just to make things feel really exciting, was his old 2021 foe Hamilton, a man just as renowned for wet-weather brilliance.

While both charged up the order in a stunning first lap, it initially looked like Hamilton was about to deliver something legendary in his red Ferrari. Despite the progress he was making a little way back, Verstappen had found himself frustrated.

"To be honest, I had a very slow reaction time off the line because I was holding the clutch wrong, so I had to react very quickly," Verstappen admitted later. "Then I was slow off the line, and that was my mistake. But then I just got a bit unlucky in the first three corners, where it was just like a traffic jam. There were three or four cars in front blocking basically how much I could pass. Actually, Lewis had a very good first lap. He could really get through those cars, so I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn't make the same headway. But then, within two laps, I was just flying by cars, almost every corner. We had a lot more grip, I guess, than most in the midfield. I don't know what lap I was in the top 10, but it all happened very quickly."

As Verstappen's tires came to life, Hamilton's did the opposite, and he soon dropped down the order.

"I had a great start, and I thought I was on for something positive, then the tires dropped off almost immediately as the track dried," Hamilton explained later. "It's really hard to then stay on the track. Just massive challenges with getting the tires in the window and having them working ... We didn't get the points I think the team deserved today. I definitely take some of that on me today."

Verstappen kicked on, getting past Hamilton for ninth at the final corner as the Ferrari wobbled left and right. The Red Bull driver's passes looked like a highlight reel of previous events -- Verstappen had won from the back of the pack in 2024 and finished third from the pit lane in 2025 and the early laps of his 2026 edition felt equally magical. His double overtake on Piastri and Williams' Alex Albon, especially, at Descida do Lago was the pick of a very competitive bunch.

As Antonelli also found in the Mercedes, the swap over to the dry tire killed the charge dead a little bit.

"As I switched to the slicks, I had an extreme amount of oversteer in the car in the high-speed corners, which made it super difficult to drive," Verstappen said. "So, we need to understand if something broke on the car, some kind of aero loss or whatever, because this was not normal."

Verstappen's second-place finish still deserved high praise, especially considering how his car had been performing. Onboard views made it clear he was fighting just to keep the car on the racetrack at points, with his faulty Red Bull radio only adding to the drama inside the cockpit. His post-race radio feedback to the pit wall summed up his mood.

"Yeah ... my god," he said. "Doing 85% of the race with a f---ed car. Of course P2 is nice, but not in this way. I'm sorry but what a disaster to drive. Unbelievable. I've never had something like this in the wet or the dry. Really, really bad."

It is perhaps a bad omen to the rest of the field for 2027 that, even with a car that is a "disaster" to drive, Verstappen still passed all but one other driver and finished second on the racetrack. If Red Bull start next year strongly and iron out the edges of its misbehaving car, Verstappen surely will be contending for a fifth world title before you know it.

Mercedes' odd weekend

Mercedes' race finished with Antonelli, George Russell and Toto Wolff surrounded by the entire race team on the podium, celebrating the constructors' title to Queen's "We Are The Champions." As with Antonelli's triumph at last weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, that has been a matter of when, not if, for a while.

But the nature of the race that preceded those celebrations was odd.

Antonelli had come out of his first pit stop looking comfortable, but he quickly found himself in a car that seemed to be dancing left and right without much explanation. After the spin that cost him the lead, he would run wide again at Turn 1 and cede second place to Verstappen. Hadjar would quickly get by him as well.

It was perhaps a moment for the newly crowned champion to come crashing down to earth after his incredible past few weeks.

"I'm very disappointed for the race. I'm very angry to be fair, but I'm going to put all this aside for now because the team clinched the title," Antonelli said. "We clinched the title for the team, and they all deserve it and I'm very proud to be part of this group and this team who has done and still does so much for me and I'm very happy for them. But talking about the race specifically, yeah, very disappointing. We were on for the win up to that point. Also in the lead, once I was able to get some temperature I was getting to the rhythm. But yeah, the spin came which still is something I need to look at because I don't know why I lost the rear so quickly as well.

"Like no warning, nothing. But already to be fair when I put the soft, I felt something weird with the car. So, we need to check what happened but on the other hand yeah, shame because we lost the race there."

Mercedes might be doubly puzzled by the fact that Russell experienced exactly the same in the final stint. If Antonelli's race had been difficult, Russell's entire weekend had been even more so. The Englishman had finished Saturday's qualifying session raging at race engineer Marcus Dudley for telling him to back off a key Q3 push lap as the rain intensified, costing him first in qualifying. Russell's engine grid penalty knocked him down the order and he then lost any chance of competing for the win with an incredibly strange spin in the pit lane.

Russell, a man starved of positive moments of late, shouldered the blame later.

"Yeah, not really too sure what happened," he said. "I went quite high risk because I smelt an opportunity and paid the price. It's in those moments where you either gain a lot, or you lose a lot. This time it went against us."

There was a small moment of levity that followed that evening.

As Wolff spoke to the written press about Mercedes' title -- its first since 2021 -- Russell walked by as his boss was talking about planned celebrations. Wolff revealed Russell would be joining him on a private jet later where they would have a drink to the "good ... and some bad," a cheeky nod to Russell's ranting the day before. Russell, half way out of the door at that point, leant back inside, laughing, adding that he would be having more than one drink, repeating the "good and the bad" part.

Interlagos the perfect circuit of variables

A final word for one of the perfect Formula 1 race venues.

There's very little to find wrong with Interlagos. Its deal is to 2035, but it's difficult to imagine F1 ever being able to evade the fan anger that would surely follow any announcement that it was dropping off the calendar.

While it is a shame it no longer hosts races at the end of the calendar -- allowing it to host title-deciding contests in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012 -- it has lost none of its penchant for drama and thrilling racing. It's a circuit featuring several good spots to overtake, treacherous weather, and anyone lucky enough to go will hear nothing but a carnival atmosphere throughout, with the fans seated all the way along the final corner right through to Turn 1 almost sitting on top of the banked, sloping racetrack.

The title climax of one week earlier might have taken some of the sting out of Sunday's contest, but Interlagos repeatedly delivers the goods. In a year that has featured a lot of very justified criticism over the state of F1's new cars and engines and the racing that has come with them, and in a year that featured the introduction of a new race at a place as dull and soulless as the Madring, F1 fans should be grateful Interlagos is here to stay for the foreseeable future.