Eighth and ninth after the decision
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished eighth and ninth in the final 2026 Sao Paulo classification, scoring six points for Ferrari. Leclerc’s five-second penalty for contact with Liam Lawson moved him down from seventh, superseding the eight-point total at the flag.
Leclerc qualified fourth and started fourteenth after a ten-place penalty for an engine change. He described difficulty generating tyre temperature in the opening stint. The soft-tyre phase improved, but traffic restricted his progress. A late return to intermediates enabled him to catch and pass Lawson before the subsequent sanction.
Hamilton’s start could not be sustained
Hamilton qualified eleventh. Power-unit changes brought an initial ten-place penalty and a further sixty-five, totalling seventy-five; the final grid placed him twentieth. He gained eleven places early in the race. As the track dried, he said tyre performance deteriorated quickly and staying on the circuit became difficult.
He returned a position to Bearman during an investigation into leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He then advocated an early switch to slicks, which initially helped, but a later spin cost another opportunity. He finished a lap down and accepted his share of responsibility.
Leclerc also cited time lost on the straights and a shortage of clean air in the opening stint, so the grid penalty alone did not explain the recovery difficulties. He wants Ferrari to understand its wet-tyre behaviour rather than depend on finding the window inconsistently.
Hamilton thanked the team for its work across the triple-header while accepting that his late spin worsened an already disappointing result. Both drivers distinguished useful phases of pace from their overall finish.
