Lando Norris has conceded his São Paulo sprint triumph was "sketchy" on occasion, leading to him calling on McLaren to conduct "some homework" ahead of the remainder of the weekend.
Norris led from pole to flag at Interlagos, albeit he had to contend with a 26-minute red-flag period after team-mate Oscar Piastri was one of three drivers to astonishingly crash out on lap six after the Australian, Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine's Franco Colapinto all rode a wet kerb out of the Senna S, sending them hurtling into a barrier on the opposite side of the track.
The Briton heads into qualifying for the grand prix later today with a nine-point cushion over Piastri, his biggest margin this season, although he was made to work for this latest success by runner-up Kimi Antonelli in his Mercedes, in particular.
"It was tough," said Norris. "It makes the win look more rewarding when you have a race like this, especially with Kimi. He was certainly not making my life easy.
"It's one of those where you have to push because you know the guy behind is going to try and push that little bit more.
"But it was sketchy. I had a couple of little lifts, but the wind was tricky, and the degradation on the tyres was difficult. Definitely not an easy race, but probably a race you always expect here in Brazil - a difficult one.
"The Mercedes was quick. Kimi kept me under pressure the whole race. I just expected us to be a little better, and we weren't. I don't know how much of that was down to the tyres, or just that they did a good job and they were quick today.
"We've got some homework to do before quali."
As to whether he and Piastri can fight for grand prix pole, he said: "I'm confident we can do that.
"I think our quali pace was good, but the wind has changed a lot, and the conditions are quite different. Today is different to yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be another day.
"But they [Mercedes] put us under pressure. Like they said, small gaps and you've got to do some perfect laps."
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