Formula 1 News: Piastri gifts Norris Sprint Race win in Brazil (Update)

As predicted, the Race Officials found a way to help penalize Red Bull driver Max Verstappen to help Lando Norris.  Verstappen has been hit with a five-second time penalty following the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint race, dropping him to fourth in the classification behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and enabling Norris to gain yet another point on Verstappen.

In their decision document, the stewards explained: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, timing, telemetry evidence.

“Article 56.5 states in part ‘All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green.’ The driver was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time at VSC End when the FIA light panels changed to green. This indicates a sporting advantage gained under VSC.

“The driver explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green.

“This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time. The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC and not as a result of the car in front falling back.”

Oscar Piastri gifted his McLaren teammate Lando Norris a win in the Sao Paulo Brazil Sprint Race at Interlagos and then the pro-British Race Officials, who want British driver Lando Norris to win the Driver’s title, did their best to hurt Max Verstappen in third.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

By waiting to throw the Virtual Safety car flag for Nico Hulkenberg’s abandoned Haas until the McLaren told Piastri to let Norris past.  As soon as Norris was past, the officials put out the Virtual Safety Car to ensure Verstappen had no chance to pass Oscar Piastri for 2nd.

“Not proud about it but we worked well as a team so thanks to Oscar,” said Norris.  “Oscar deserved it, but we are doing what we have to do. Great pace, so looking forward to the race tomorrow. The dirty air costs you a lot of lap time, but it felt good – I think we were clearly quicker than the guys behind.”

“Was a bit tricky to be honest, the racing line was incredibly narrow and you missed it by a tire’s width you were in all sorts of trouble,” said Piastri. “The pace looked okay, but the Ferrari was quick at the start and Max was quick at the end. We are in decent shape.”

Verstappen appeared to have the fastest car but took over half the race to get past the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and by then the race was almost over.

“It was quite a tricky race, but I think the pace is quite good so I’m pleased with that,” said Verstappen. “It took quite a while with Charles, but it’s promising, it’s good. But tomorrow might rain, so lots of unknowns, but today was good.”

Norris gained two points on Verstappen in the championship, and Verstappen’s lead is now down to 45 points.  But the bad news for McLaren is that Verstappen has decent race pace – and Ferrari do not…

Leclerc held on for 4th, 5.6s behind Norris, while George Russell rounded out the top-5 for Mercedes.

The Race Stewards are going to penalize Verstappen further because it was announced they will investigate him for Virtual Safety Car infringement even though he gained no advantage.  British Johnny Herbert is one of the race Stewards and he does everything in his power to help British drivers like Lando Norris.

“On everything we can see, it looks okay,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner, but Herbert will dig for something.

So, that was the Sprint – and so far we know tire wear is going to be a big issue tomorrow in the race. Ferrari don’t look as quick as they did in Mexico, while Red Bull look much better in race trim than over one lap.

But McLaren are undeniably the fastest cars at the moment, and perfectly willing to enact team orders.

2024 Sao Paulo Brazil Sprint Race Results – 24 Laps