2025 Brazilian GP Preview: Title fight continues in Sao Paulo

Next up in the thrilling three way battle for the World Drivers Championship is a trip to Interlagos for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, in a race which has provided much drama for many years now, what twist does Brazil have next?

Last time out: Norris takes control after majestic Mexico performance

Lando Norris took his sixth win of the 2025 season and crucially the top spot in the World Championship after a dominant win in Mexico City.

It was off the back of a disastrous weekend at the US Grand Prix for McLaren where both Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri crashed out the sprint, while their other title rival Max Verstappen took a maximum of eight points for a victory.

The four time world champion then went on to win the Grand Prix with Norris second and Piastri only managing to finish fifth and saw him reduce the gap in the world championship to just 40 points with five races and two sprints still remaining, so it was all up for grabs in Mexico.

Norris put in a stunning qualifying performance, taking pole position by nearly 3 tenths of a second, ahead of both Ferrari cars, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton who recorded his best starting position of the season. Verstappen could only drag his Red Bull to P5 while championship leader Piastri had a horrible session finishing in P8.

Lando survived turn one in the lead and controlled the race from there, the drama happened behind where Verstappen and Hamilton fought into turn one a few laps into the race. The seven time world champion locked up at turn four and had to cut the corner, allowing Haas driver Ollie Bearman to sneak through into third place, Hamilton was given a ten second penalty for the corner cut.

Norris crossed the line nearly 30 seconds clear of Leclerc in second place and Verstappen in third, Oscar Piastri could only manage fifth meaning that he gave up the lead of the World Championship by a single point.

World Championship picture

As mentioned, Lando Norris leads the drivers standings heading into the Sao Paulo Grand Prix by a single point ahead of Piastri while Verstappen is a further 36 points behind.

Lando Norris - 357 points

Oscar Piastri - 356 points

Max Verstappen - 321 points

The Interlagos curveball - How history shows that anything is possible

Interlagos is a track which over the many years that F1 has been going there, anything is possible. Who can forget Hamliton on Timo Glock in 2008, Sebastian Vettel’s comeback drive to win a third world title in 2012 or even the back of the grid to win in a weekend that Hamilton kept his championship hopes alive in 2021.

Last year provided more of this drama as in a wet and wild weekend which saw qualifying delayed to Sunday morning, Max Verstappen was knocked out in Q2 and had a grid penalty which saw him start P17, meanwhile his then title rival Norris was on pole. However the race couldn’t have been any different as the Red Bull put a stunning wet weather drive in to win the race while Norris could only manage sixth, effectively ending his dreams of a first world title.

Now returning a year later to the same track, the British driver will have to put the horrible memories of that race behind him.

Oscar Piastri: Desperate for a good weekend

For Piastri, it’s crucial that he manages to have a consistent weekend of results for his chances of winning the championship. Having led the standings since Saudi Arabia, it felt like he was in a controlling position for the majority of the season especially when Norris' DNF at the Dutch GP saw him gain another 25 points on his main rival at the time.

The Australian driver had scored a podium at every race from round two in Japan to round 15 in Italy, apart from the Canadian GP where he finished fourth after contact with Lando late on.

Since Monza, Piastri has only taken 32 points out of the 108 that were up for grabs, Verstappen has taken 91 points and Norris 64. It’s vital that he gets back on the podium at the minimum or he risks losing more ground in the title flight.

Constructors Championship: The fight for P2 and P6

While McLaren dominated the Constructors Championship in 2025, the championship is still a point to draw some attention to with both P2 and P6 very tight and up for grabs.

In the battle for second, it is Ferrari that currently hold that position by just a single point to Mercedes and a further ten points ahead of Red Bull in third.

In terms of which team is in the best position, at this point in time, Mercedes look like the most likely to finish in that runner up spot just because George Russell is capable of scoring not just podiums but even the odd victory, as shown in Canada and Singapore, while Kimi Antonelli has scored points at five of the last six races.

Ferrari definitely have the car but results can be very inconsistent and Red Bull is pretty much a one man army with 321 of the 346 points have come from Verstappen, which is 93%, so Red Bull will need Yuki Tsunoda to start performing higher up towards the front of the grid if the 2022 and 2023 champions are to claim second.

Scuderia Ferrari - 356

Mercedes AMG Petronas - 355

Red Bull Racing - 346

The battle for sixth in the constructors is extremely tight with 12 points separating just four teams:

Visa Cash App RB - 72 points

Aston Martin - 69 points

Haas F1 Team - 62 points

Kick Sauber - 60 points

Haas pulled themselves into the fight with a brilliant double points weekend in Mexico, scoring 14 points with Ollie Bearman in P4 and Esteban Ocon in P9.

Two of the four teams in this fight have scored podiums this season, Nico Hulkenberg finally getting his first podium after 239 races at the British GP for Sauber and Isack Hadjar scored a podium in his rookie season at the Dutch GP.

Aston Martin’s best finish in 2025 was a P5 for Fernando Alonso and a P7 for Lance Stroll, both coming at the Hungarian GP.