2024 F1 Round 21 São Paulo GP Sprint: McLaren swap gives Norris maiden Sprint win, Verstappen’s five-second penalty drops him to fourth, qualifying postponed by rain

The Sprint at the 2024 Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix, round 21 of the season, took place at Interlagos on the evening of 2 November, Beijing time. A McLaren team-mate swap gave Lando Norris the first Sprint victory of his career, with Oscar Piastri second. Max Verstappen crossed the line third but received a five-second penalty after the race for a Virtual Safety Car infringement, dropping him to fourth and promoting Charles Leclerc to third. Yuki Tsunoda finished 15th after starting 17th.

Pole-sitter Piastri led the opening 21 laps. During the middle phase of the race, Leclerc, closing from third, threatened Norris in second. McLaren therefore asked Piastri to slow slightly and give his team-mate DRS assistance to defend. On lap 22, the team formally implemented its order for Piastri to hand the lead to Norris. Norris crossed the line 0.593 seconds ahead to claim his maiden Sprint win. Afterwards, he admitted he was “not proud” of winning in that way while thanking his team-mate and the team.

Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas stopped beside the track with a mechanical problem, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Verstappen had passed Leclerc for third at Turn 4 with five laps remaining, and attacked Piastri as the VSC ended on the final lap, falling short by 0.9 seconds. That ultimately made no difference: the stewards judged him to have breached the VSC procedure and added five seconds to his time. Verstappen was classified fourth, 6.497 seconds behind the winner, with Leclerc promoted to third. Norris reduced the championship gap to 44 points.

Ferrari lacked pace, with Leclerc promoted to third and Carlos Sainz fifth. George Russell finished sixth, 5.2 seconds behind Sainz. Lewis Hamilton lost three places at the start before recovering to 11th, the same position from which he had started. An in-form Pierre Gasly finished seventh. Starting 13th, Sergio Pérez passed both Haas cars and, with five laps remaining, forced his way down the inside at Turn 1 during a fierce battle with Liam Lawson to take eighth and the final point. Pérez also set the fastest lap on the final tour, a 1:11.678.

The feared rain did not arrive, and all 20 cars started on medium tyres. Both Aston Martins and Zhou Guanyu started from the pit lane after changes were made to their cars under parc fermé conditions. Tsunoda had qualified 18th for the Sprint, but Alonso’s move to a pit-lane start meant he actually lined up 17th before finishing 15th. Team-mate Lawson crossed the line ninth, just outside the points.

Grand Prix qualifying, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon local time, was postponed until Sunday morning because of torrential rain and a lightning warning. It would be the sixth time in F1 history that qualifying and the race had taken place on the same day. The Grand Prix was set to begin late on 3 November, Beijing time.