Max Verstappen repeats Sao Paulo heroics as Lando Norris seals victory

Lando Norris scored his third victory of the season, and his second successive win in São Paulo on a day when Mercedes netted the F1 constructors' championship.

In a highly entertaining wet-dry-wet race around Interlagos, Norris finished 14.6 seconds ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who delivered another stunning drive in Brazil after starting 21st.

Two years ago, the four-time F1 champion won from 17th on the grid; last year, he was third after starting from the pit lane.

Verstappen was joined on the podium by Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar, his third top-three finish for the team in his first season with the Milton Keynes-based squad.

Mercedes duo George Russell and incoming champion Kimi Antonelli were fourth and fifth to secure Mercedes its team title. The 20-year-old is under investigation for an unsafe release, although with McLaren's Oscar Piastri 20 seconds adrift in sixth, even a 10-second penalty will not hurt that position.

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Verstappen surges forward

At the start, on a wet track with all the drivers on intermediates, Antonelli managed to get a flyer and leave pole sitter Norris in his wake.

Norris' struggle continued through the Senna S as Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made his way past into second, a position he finally regained on lap seven. A lap later, the New Zealander was down to fifth after also being passed by Hadjar and Mercedes' George Russell.

By that stage, from 21st on the grid, Verstappen had risen to sixth, whilst Hamilton, who made up 11 places from 20th to ninth on the opening lap, was running in 11th.

One of those positions was to Verstappen, who made a sweeping move up the hill at one stage, whilst the seven-time F1 champion also had to give a place back to Haas' Oliver Bearman after going off track and gaining an advantage with a move on lap one.

By the end of lap 11, and clearly struggling with his rear tyres, Hamilton had dropped to 14th after being overtaken by Racing Bull's Arvid Lindblad, his Scuderia team-mate Charles Leclerc, and even Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton and Leclerc went wheel to wheel along the main straight but after recent issues between the duo, and clear-the-air talks on Thursday evening in São Paulo, they managed to stay out of each other's way on this occasion.

At the end of lap 15, Hamilton was the first to make the switch to slicks, taking on a set of softs and dropping back to the position he started from - 20th - with the Briton followed into the pits by Williams' Carlos Sainz, who also took on softs.

The duo sparked a welter of stops, including Russell, who spun in the middle of the pit lane exit and at one point was facing the wrong way. From fourth on track at the stop, he lost four places by the time he managed to extricate himself from an awkward position.

After 19 laps, all drivers had completed a stop. At the start of lap 20, Antonelli spun out of the lead at Turn 1, allowing Norris to sweep by. A lap later, and seemingly struggling with a car pulling to one side under acceleration, Antonelli was passed by Hadjar.

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The rain strikes again

Antonelli's woes continued on lap 24 as Verstappen moved up into the podium places, seven seconds behind leader Norris, and with team-mate Hadjar in between the pair.

A frantic radio message to engineer Pete Bonnington underlined the issue he was experiencing, in that he could not "turn left on the corners", and that "the car was turning by itself".

Approaching the midway point of the race, and with Norris holding a 7.5s lead over Hadjar, with Verstappen closing in, Lance Stroll suffered his 14th retirement of a miserable season in his Aston Martin, now two shy of the record held by Andrea de Cesaris.

On lap 37, Red Bull called for Hadjar to pull to one side and allow Verstappen to pass into second, which he obliged by doing so into Turn 1 on the following lap.

At the end of lap 39, Hamilton, in ninth, was the first to take on fresh rubber for a second time, again taking on softs, falling to 14th. As he emerged out of the pits, he found himself passed by Norris to fall a lap down.

Hamilton managed to unlap himself at the start of lap 44, at which point Norris was holding a 10.5s lead over Verstappen, who had not managed to pull away from Hadjar. The French-Algerian driver continued to remain within a second of his team-mate.

After 46 laps, Verstappen also opted for new Pirellis. In contrast, Hadjar was asked whether he wanted to go to the end on his first set of softs, making it clear he would do so.

With 24 laps remaining, Verstappen found himself in fifth, 35 seconds behind Norris, with Hadjar, Antonelli and McLaren's Oscar Piastri also in front of him.

Norris, though, pitted after 49 laps, handing the lead to Hadjar, with the Briton dropping to fourth behind Piastri, who quickly moved aside to allow him through to third.

Despite his earlier claim, Hadjar did pit again a lap later, promoting Antonelli back into the lead, although he, too, boxed after 54 laps, giving Norris a 7.5s advantage over Verstappen in the battle for the victory.

It was then that light rain started to fall, but Norris was able to stretch his lead over Verstappen to 14 seconds after 62 laps before pitting for inters, whilst Verstappen stayed out for one more lap, as did seventh-placed Hamilton, who lost his Ferrari up the hill, almost losing his car into a barrier, kissing it with his rear wing.

With all the drivers back on inters, Antonelli was told to let Russell by into fourth in the hope he could chase down Hadjar for third, but it was to no avail.

Norris managed the wet conditions through to the flag to clinch his first win since the Dutch GP at Zandvoort at the end of August.

Behind the top five, Leclerc, Lawson, Hamilton and Audi's Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.