{"id":14063,"date":"2024-11-02T16:01:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T16:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/?p=14063"},"modified":"2024-11-02T16:01:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T16:01:53","slug":"sao-paulo-gp-lando-norris-wins-the-sprint-race-six-tenths-ahead-of-teammate-oscar-piastri-following-team-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/sao-paulo-gp-lando-norris-wins-the-sprint-race-six-tenths-ahead-of-teammate-oscar-piastri-following-team-orders\/","title":{"rendered":"SAO PAULO GP \u2013 Lando Norris wins the sprint race six tenths ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri following team orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris has beaten his teammate Oscar Piastri to win the sprint race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix by six tenths. The two McLarens were instructed to switch positions with three laps to go as the team rightly predicted a virtual safety car with three laps to go after the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track with five laps to go.<\/p>\n

McLaren looked comfortable on race pace as both cars were nine-tenths ahead of Norris\u2019s championship rival Max Verstappen who looked not to have the pace to challenge during the shortened format. The McLarens will now go into the rest of the weekend as the favourites as they have looked to have the edge over Verstappen.<\/p>\n

McLaren made the swap a lot more tense than it needed to be, by delaying it until Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull had passed the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc with six laps to go. The result cuts Verstappen\u2019s lead to 45 points, with the grand prix and twenty-six points still to come on Sunday.<\/p>\n

At the start, polesitter Piastri moved across to cut off Norris\u2019s run to the inside at Senna (Turn One), where the McLarens held their positions and Verstappen locked up unsuccessfully attacking Leclerc\u2019s third place.<\/p>\n

The three-time champion finished a second and a half behind his championship rival, as he looked to struggle to match the McLarens, who have the pace. Verstappen\u2019s weekend had another spanner in the works as he is \u00a0under investigation for an alleged Virtual Safety Car infringement on the final lap behind Piastri – after overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc late on, Norris has cut his Red Bull rival’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 45 points ahead of Sunday’s main race – for which the Dutchman carries a five-place grid penalty for an engine change.<\/p>\n

While Verstappen did not overtake the McLaren and then appeared to drop back to re-establish his previous deficit once the VSC ended, but stewards will now determine whether that still constitutes any kind of penalty.<\/p>\n

Having suggested after qualifying on Sprint pole that he would be willing to cede the Saturday win to Norris, Piastri led the race’s first 21 laps before duly letting Norris through down Interlagos’ back straight in a choreographed switch of position overseen by the McLaren pit wall. While Verstappen was on the back of Piastri at the end of the race he had lost a lot of time behind Leclerc which possibly cost him the opportunity to chase Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Norris said afterwards: \u201cNot proud about it but we work well as a team together so I thank Oscar. We\u2019ve done a great job as a team today and it was the result that we wanted, Oscar deserved it, but we are doing what we have to do. I thank him and the team and we had great pace so I\u2019m looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri who finished second from pole position: “It was a bit tricky to be honest very bumpy as we know and the racing line was incredibly narrow, you miss it by a tyre’s width then you’re in all sorts of trouble. It was a great day for the team, a lot of points and we can learn a lot for the race tomorrow, as well.”<\/p>\n

Leclerc was a second and a ahead of his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz but both appeared to struggle for pace to fight at the front, Ferrari struggling to show the strong race pace they have had in recent races. George Russell finished five seconds ahead of Pierre Gasly, who held onto seventh scoring important points for Alpine.<\/p>\n

Sergio Perez recovered from thirteenth to finish eighth and take the final point ahead of Liam Lawson by two seconds. While Alex Albon completed the top ten.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton was eleventh, he was five seconds behind Albon and three second ahead of Franco Colapinto. But any hopes of more were shattered early on following a poor start he dropped two places before recovering to finish where he started.<\/p>\n

Esteban Ocon brought his Alpine home just over a second ahead of 2025 Haas teammate Ollie Bearman, overnight the team announced that Bearman will now replace Kevin Magnussen for the rest of the weekend. Bearman\u2019s third race having replaced Sainz in Jeddah and Magnussen in Baku earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

Bearman was nearly six seconds ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, while Valtteri Bottas was ten seconds ahead of his Sauber teammate Guanyu Zhou. The two Aston Martin\u2019s completed the field, Fernando Alonso nearly a second ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n

Attention now turns to Grand Prix qualifying and the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

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