Lando Norris makes striking claim after 'nasty conditions' victory

Lando Norris has declared his chaotic São Paulo Grand Prix triumph as "one of the best" wins of his F1 career, pointing to a mixture of treacherous weather and flawless execution from McLaren.

The Briton took victory at Interlagos after a race run in shifting wet-dry-wet conditions, with rain at the start forcing every driver onto intermediate tyres before a drying track opened the door to slicks from around lap 14. A late downpour then reversed the situation again, sending the field back onto intermediates in the closing stages.

Norris finished 14.602 seconds clear of Max Verstappen for his third win of the season, and 14th of his F1 career.

It was Antonelli who provided one of the key moments of the afternoon. Norris explained that he had been trailing the Mercedes driver by eight seconds before the pit stop phase, only for an early call from the 20-year-old's team to switch to the slicks flipping the pressure back his way.

"I was eight seconds behind Kimi before the pit stop," said Norris, reflecting on his win. "He boxed one lap early onto the slicks. I came out and was right behind him and forced him to push a little bit more, and obviously he went into a mistake, and I could capitalise on it."

Discussing the broader difficulty of the afternoon, Norris said the race had tested every element of his and the team's performance, from reading the crossover window to simply staying out of the gravel.

"It's certainly up there in terms of challenge," he said, speaking to media, including RacingNews365. "A challenge to achieve, not made easy, I guess, for all the reasons possible.

"Not the best start, and obviously coming back from there, but a lot of challenges from just strategy and conditions, whether trying out or managing the inters, getting on the slicks, not making mistakes on the slicks, especially into Turn 1 and a lot of the wetter places, and then vice versa, going back onto the inters at the end and managing the slicks in the wet conditions.

"So, a lot thrown at everyone, but it was probably one of our best races in terms of execution and pit stops, timing of things.

"So, in terms of always being there where we needed to be, being able to put people under pressure was a very good day for that.

"Also, from my side, just not making any mistakes, which is so easy to do on a day like this. So, great performance from the whole team. Certainly up there with one of the best I've ever had."

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Asked how demanding it was leading much of the race, Norris said the margin for error never allowed him to relax, even when he was out front.

"I don't think that matters too much because, by a certain part of the race, you also have people ahead of you again," he said.

"So, you're not necessarily the lead car, you're just observing things. I'm watching the TVs as I go around to see what's happening, and the team is always giving me information to say where people are making mistakes, where I have to brake earlier, where I can gain lap time, all these different things.

"So, there was a lot of information that I was giving to the team, a lot of information that I was getting from the team. It was very, very tricky from that perspective.

"It's hard to describe it, I guess, to people because unless you're in the car, it's hard to show and describe the difficulties of a slick tyre in the rain and how easy it was to lock up into Turn 1, lose the car and all these different things.

"Nasty conditions, as always, sometimes around here in Brazil. Otherwise, it was just a very well-executed race from that side."