Norris Edges Closer to Greatness

By James Farquharson

Lando Norris wins in Sao Paulo and extends his lead over title rivals Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen in what was a dominant performance. He now leads the championship by 24 points with just three races remaining. 

Described by the man himself as “The perfect weekend” he smoothly sailed to a total of 33 points. With pole position and a win in the sprint race, Lando put himself in good stead going into the race building on his dominance.  

It was a sixth pole position for the Mclaren driver and despite the efforts of a phenomenal drive from Max Verstappen, it was a seventh win of the season that followed. 

Lando Norris celebrating his victory in Sao Paulo (Getty Images)

Max Verstappen produced one of his greatest ever drives where he started in the pit lane but ended up on the podium and while that was exceptional, it could've been even better. He struggled with control of his car in the first part of the weekend and only managed a poor 16th in qualifying.  

Red Bull decided to take the hit fitting a new engine and changing his setup. Verstappen therefore started from the pit lane but did not look back. By lap 51 he led the race albeit due to Lando Norris pitting.  

The option was there to stick with the medium tyres he was originally on and try and hold off Mclaren and Mercedes, but Red Bull kept with the original plan of pitting for softs. It ended up being a third-place finish for Max which seemed impossible 71 laps ago. 

Max Verstappen celebrating a phenomenal drive with his team (Getty Images)

So, with Brazil in the rearview mirror we can now look forward to the final three races of the season with Vegas up next. Lando has almost a full race lead over Piastri who seems to be the only one who could catch him. 

Piastri has had a tough end to the season. He hasn't won since August and has a lot of work to do if he wants to overturn the growing deficit. It can change very quickly however, and it is almost a certainty that more drama will follow as we enter the most critical moments in the season.