Brazilian GP 2026: Norris wins, Verstappen charges from 21st to 2nd

Lando Norris has won the 2026 Brazilian GP at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, handing McLaren victory in changeable conditions. Behind him, Max Verstappen, who started 21st on the grid, and Isack Hadjar completed the podium for Red Bull Racing. The race was decided during the switch from intermediates to slicks, when leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli lost control of his Mercedes.

You can relive every phase, every overtake and every pit stop in 3D on our race page for the 2026 Brazilian GP.

With air temperatures between 15.6 and 16.7 °C, the entire field started the race on intermediates. According to formula1.com, Antonelli had already spun on his way to the grid, but he then made the better start from second and moved past polesitter Norris. Liam Lawson also passed Norris around the outside at Turn 1 from third on the grid in his Racing Bulls car and was running second from Turn 2 onwards. Shortly after the start, the McLaren driver therefore found himself only third.

As the track dried, Antonelli's intermediates overheated. Norris, Hadjar and George Russell switched to soft tyres on lap 16, while Antonelli and Verstappen stayed out one lap longer. The switch went wrong for the Mercedes driver: according to formula1.com, he spun at Turn 1 on lap 20, handing the lead to Norris. Antonelli later slid off the track once more. Apart from the phases around the pit stops, Norris never gave up the lead again all the way to the flag and kept his cool during the late rain shower too. “Going onto slicks in the wet is always tough”, he said, according to formula1.com.

The rain returned towards the end of the race, only lightly at first. Between laps 59 and 62, all remaining drivers switched back to intermediates – Norris on lap 62, at the same time as Verstappen, Hadjar, Antonelli and Oscar Piastri. It no longer changed the order at the front.

Verstappen put on the big show of the day. Starting 21st on the grid, he gained 19 positions, more than any other driver that afternoon. On the wet track he was already carving his way swiftly through the field in the opening phase. On lap 3, Race Control did note a possible false start due to an incorrect grid position for both him and Alexander Albon, but after reviewing it the stewards saw no reason for an investigation.

Verstappen lost little time in the pit lane either. Across his three stops he spent 23.7, 23.3 and 23.8 seconds in the pit lane, among the fastest figures in the field. Red Bull split their drivers' strategies: Verstappen took his second set of softs on lap 45, Hadjar not until lap 50. Norris followed on lap 49 and stayed ahead. Victory was out of reach for Verstappen, but Hadjar's third place from fifth on the grid secured the double podium for Red Bull.

Most drivers stopped three times: intermediates, softs, a second set of softs and finally intermediates again. Three drivers took a different route. Russell and Charles Leclerc ran their set of softs from lap 17 to 61 – 45 laps in total – and then went straight onto intermediates. Sergio Pérez likewise made do with two stops. For Russell, it paid off. Despite spinning at the pit exit after his first stop, according to formula1.com, he went from seventh on the grid to fourth at the flag. Leclerc gained six positions from 14th with the same strategy.

Antonelli, by contrast, ran his first set of softs until lap 53 and then came in for fresh softs for just nine laps before switching to intermediates on lap 62. He did not stay ahead of his team-mate: according to formula1.com, he was told to swap positions with Russell. In the end he finished fifth after starting second, though he did at least take the fastest lap of the race.

Lewis Hamilton went onto slicks as early as lap 14, together with Carlos Sainz. Hamilton then stopped again on laps 38 and 62 and finished ninth from 20th on the grid, one lap down. According to formula1.com, it was his 400th Grand Prix. Piastri also made three stops and moved up from tenth to sixth.

The pit lane proved costly for several drivers. Oliver Bearman needed 39.7 seconds to get through the pit lane at his first tyre change on lap 16, when around 24 was normal. Pérez also lost significant time at his first stop on lap 15 with 32.1 seconds, as did Pierre Gasly with 31.1 seconds on lap 61.

The stewards had a busy afternoon. On lap 37, Albon tangled with Alpine driver Gasly at Turn 1 and received a five-second penalty for rejoining the track unsafely. He apparently served it at his stop on lap 42, which therefore cost him 30.7 seconds in the pit lane. In the end, the Williams driver was only 15th. Nico Hülkenberg was handed a ten-second penalty in his Audi for leaving the track at Turn 1 on lap 51 and gaining an advantage. His final stop on lap 61 cost him 35.2 seconds in the pit lane. Having started fourth, he was left with just the final point in tenth.

Hamilton's off at Turn 5 on lap 6, a possible failure by Pérez to respect yellow flags and an incident between Bearman and Sainz at Turn 6 all went unpunished. For Hülkenberg, Pérez, Hadjar, Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll, the stewards scheduled a post-race investigation into unauthorised practice starts before the race.

After the chequered flag, the stewards handed out three more five-second penalties, according to formula1.com. Leclerc had made contact with Lawson at Turn 12 in the closing stages while fighting for seventh. The penalty swapped the two, so Lawson is classified seventh and Leclerc eighth. Antonelli was penalised for an unsafe release into the path of Franco Colapinto, but kept fifth thanks to his margin. Bearman received the same penalty for being released into Leclerc's path after his stop. He still stayed 17th.

Two drivers were not classified:

• Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) had to retire after 30 laps with a battery problem, as he explained himself according to formula1.com.
• Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) did not even take the start. On the grid, a jammed rear-right wheel nut could not be removed. His grid position, 17th, was left empty.

The remaining 20 drivers were all classified, including the lapped drivers from Hamilton in ninth to Rafael Câmara in 20th.

Winners of the day: Verstappen gained the most positions with 19. Hamilton made up eleven places, while Arvid Lindblad went from 18th on the grid to eleventh, seven places further forward. Leclerc gained six positions despite his penalty. Norris belongs here too: he lost the lead at the start, won it back, kept Verstappen at bay and survived the late rain chaos.

Losers of the day: Bearman dropped from sixth on the grid to 17th, losing eleven places. His Haas F1 Team team-mate Câmara lost nine positions from eleventh, down to 20th. Sainz slipped from twelfth to 19th, while Hülkenberg and Albon each lost six places. Fernando Alonso went from eighth on the grid to twelfth, Antonelli from second to fifth. Gabriel Bortoleto also went away empty-handed in 16th, as did Colapinto and Gasly in 13th and 14th.

In the standings, Antonelli leads with 390 points. With three races to go, that puts him 111 points ahead of Verstappen (279). Russell pushed Hamilton out of third, 262 points to 261. Behind them come Leclerc (249) and Norris (246). In the constructors' championship, Mercedes secured the title with 652 points to Ferrari's 510. The fight for third is close: Red Bull have 415 points, McLaren 398. Next up is the Las Vegas GP.