Winners and Losers from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix

Another victory for Lando Norris, his seventh of the season, and the British driver’s grip on the title is tightening.

These are PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Winners and Losers from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix

Winner: Lando Norris

In a drive which was in stark contrast to the rather flaccid display he put on at the same venue 12 months ago, Lando Norris has clearly started to understand how best to balance his very public desire to be well-liked and popular against his ambitions as a sportsman.

Much like he did in Mexico, Norris didn’t put a wheel wrong throughout the Brazilian weekend to control proceedings outright, aided by Red Bull completely mullering its setup to ensure Max Verstappen started the race on the back foot.

It’s to Norris’ credit that he has hit a rich vein of form right when he needed to, coinciding with the pressure of the championship ramping up. It was under these circumstances that he wilted last year, and he’s clearly learned lessons on how to better manage his mental state since the disappointment of last season.

Granted, it’s possibly slightly easier given the knowledge that, despite his own run of results, Verstappen has never quite fully got back on terms in the title chase; proving that he is no longer cowed by his friend and rival in the heat of battle is the final question mark that awaits the British driver, but the signs are good.

Loser: Oscar Piastri

While it was a marginally stronger weekend for Oscar Piastri, defeat is starting to feel a little bit inevitable for him, isn’t it?

His downturn in form, coinciding with the exact point at which Norris has seemingly shrugged off all of his own insecurities, hasn’t yet been quite explained, whether he even knows the answer, but is it really that unfathomable to think that, in the heat of a tense title fight in F1 for the first time, Piastri has just seized up a bit?

Where Piastri was distinctly unlucky was in the awarding of a rather harsh 10-second time penalty for an incident that, while a contributor, he hadn’t done anything egregiously wrong.

Having predicted the restart better than Kimi Antonelli had, Piastri had lined up as part of a three-abreast move into Turn 1. Cognisant of the danger, he hit the brakes hard and stuck to the inside as best he could.

This still proved insufficient to avoid contact with Antonelli as the Italian turned into the apex and, in turn, took out Charles Leclerc, and, while it appeared a straightforward racing incident, the stewards still set about finding someone to blame.

That person was Piastri, and the resulting penalty took him out of contention for a podium.

As he worded it afterward, “I’m not sure where I was supposed to go”. Short of never having gone three wide in the first place, this is a very pertinent question; Piastri’s car can’t evaporate from his position on the inside.

But it was nonetheless obvious that Piastri didn’t have an answer for Norris’ outright pace overall, as, between Lap 6 (the lap of the collision and Piastri moving into second) and Lap 30 (Norris’ pitstop), Piastri had lost seven seconds.

It was a devastatingly effective dismantling of Piastri from Norris, and his penalty woes merely exacerbated this drubbing. It’s difficult to see much light at the end of the championship tunnel for Piastri at this point, given that the momentum has escaped him right when he needed it most.

Winner: Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen should never have been in the conversation for a podium in a dry Brazilian Grand Prix. But, not only did he achieve that without the benefit of a mid-race Safety Car or a sprinkling of rain, but, for a brief moment or two, it even looked like the victory might be on the cards.

Let’s be honest, when he came out just 15 seconds behind Norris, armed with fresh softs with 15 laps to go, who amongst us didn’t think that the Dutch driver might just surpass his drive at the same circuit last season?

Ultimately, this didn’t play out, as the soft tyres couldn’t be persuaded to last long enough to allow Verstappen to complete the most unlikely of pitlane-to-victory drives, but the fact that it ever even looked like a possibility underlines just how stellar Verstappen was, once again, in what was undoubtedly one of the Dutch driver’s finest hours in F1.

The championship is all but over at this point, but even in defeat for the first time since 2020, the four-time F1 World Champion has underlined once again what makes him the most formidable driver on the grid; he simply cannot be ruled out of contention, ever, even against the World Champion elect in a more versatile McLaren. And even starting from the pit lane, with an untested setup.

Red Bull, too, must be praised for its part in transforming its driver’s fortunes so dramatically from Saturday to Sunday. The pitfalls of a Sprint weekend are vast when teams lack time to fettle their cars and, while many fans may enjoy the ‘unpredictability’ of this format, the reality is that the races are largely decided by whose sim work has proven most accurate in the approach to a weekend, offering a setup headstart, rather than an elite Grand Prix team unlocking the full potential of its car.

Would Verstappen and Red Bull have won the Grand Prix, had it been a normal weekend with three practice sessions and time to prepare the cars properly?

Having failed miserably through the Sprint and qualifying, Red Bull threw a ‘Hail Mary’ at the situation with a vastly different setup (kudos to the sim drivers back in Milton Keynes), a fresh power unit, and, miracle of miracles, it worked.

The only niggling doubt after this race is whether Red Bull’s aggression with the final stop actually cost Verstappen the win. Given how Liam Lawson managed to massage his mediums home after a stop on Lap 19, could Verstappen have managed to hold off Norris’ attentions in the closing stages with the 15-lap offset between them? Highly unlikely, but… it is Verstappen.

But the logic of the stop was sound: not only did he stand a chance at closing down the leaders again, but a late Safety Car would have resulted in him being the only driver near the front on softs. On a weekend where Red Bull appeared somewhat lost on the engineering side on how to set the car up, the strategy team, ever the disruptors, delivered.

What Brazil suggested is that the RB21 is of similar ultimate potential to the MCL39, and perhaps has been all season, but, fundamentally, the team has struggled to unlock the consistency with it required to make a five-time F1 World Champion of its talisman.

More from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix:

👉 Charles Leclerc lays blame after race-ending Brazilian GP clash

👉 Oscar Piastri handed additional penalty after Antonelli clash

Winner: Liam Lawson and Racing Bulls

Racing to seventh place, Lawson somehow managed to make a one-stop strategy work as he ditched his soft tyres for mediums on Lap 19.

This was to be his one and only stop, even though he explained afterward that the intention had, originally, been to do the two-stop strategy that his teammate Isack Hadjar used.

The two converged on track in the closing stages, with Lawson even managing to hold off Hadjar as the pair made light contact at Turn 1 on the final lap.

This could have resulted in frayed tempers after the chequered flag, particularly given the uncertainty over the race seats each will occupy next year, but if there were any, they were well hidden by both.

“There’s no way that we’re not going to race for a position like that. So I respect that,” Lawson told Sky F1.

“Obviously, we’re lucky that we came out of it, but it’s been a great weekend for the team.”

Hadjar was lucky to get away with his audacious attempt to pass Lawson, which threatened both drivers’ points finishes, and held his hands up for the contact, saying, “I pushed it a little too much. But honestly, it was very, very fun.

“He went on the one stop and at the very last lap, I mean, his gearbox, I think you can’t do any better than that. And I tried, and I overdid it. Kind of my mistake.”

With a double points finish for seventh and eighth, Racing Bulls go 10 points clear of Aston Martin in sixth place overall with three race weekends to go.

Loser: Yuki Tsunoda

On a day where his teammate started from the pit lane and raced into victory contention, Yuki Tsunoda started from 17th and…finished in 17th.

Granted, he didn’t get the same overnight treatment as Verstappen with setup changes and a fresh engine, but this had little bearing on his contact with Lance Stroll that sent the Canadian driver spinning and immediately consigned the Japanese driver to an afternoon to forget.

The resulting 10-second time penalty was then compounded by Red Bull making a mistake by touching the car, resulting in him picking up another time penalty of the same magnitude.

Simplistically, wiping out those 20 seconds would have secured Tsunoda seventh place. Add in a few more seconds for him not being mired in the lower midfield, and Bearman’s sixth place may have been possible, with the Japanese driver not too downbeat about his overall pace.

But there’s little reason to think there’s light at the end of the tunnel for Tsunoda now. Verstappen, almost single-handedly, is delivering a campaign that may yet secure Red Bull the runner-up position, with Tsunoda’s 25-point contribution to this effort being of little impact.

On a weekend where both Racing Bulls drivers delivered, Tsunoda’s position isn’t looking good; might he be in the final month of his F1 racing career?

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

Antonelli may have been fortunate to escape a penalty for his part in the Lap 6 fracas at Turn 1, given that he was the one with a little bit of space to work with on his outside, but there’s no doubt that the young Italian has put his mid-season wobbles behind him.

For perhaps the first time since the Miami Sprint, Antonelli looked completely at ease and the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers, even while battling his way through the race with a slightly askew steering wheel following the clash with Leclerc.

The incident was the only blemish (and a minor one at that) in what was an indication of just how high Antonelli’s ceiling can be, and the 19-year-old was understandably enthused afterward.

“I’ve had a good run so far, a couple of strong races, and this weekend was the weekend where we put things more together,” he said.

“Which is what I need to do, especially for the team. So yeah, I’ve been enjoying a lot this weekend and looking forward to the next ones.”

With the reassurance of a contract renewal after his difficult middle phase of the season, Antonelli has shown tremendous mental fortitude not to have completely crumbled under the weight of succeeding Lewis Hamilton, and Mercedes’ gentle approach of handling a struggling driver is starting to yield dividends.

If he performs at this level on a consistent basis through his sophomore year, George Russell might have something to worry about next season…

Loser: Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

There’s never a shortage of unfounded speculation about Lewis Hamilton’s future at the Scuderia, and weekends like this one do little to quash rumours such as the recent one that suggests he may not be offered the option of continuing into the third season of his contract in 2027, should his performances not pick up significantly.

While the initial clash with Williams’ Carlos Sainz on Lap 1 wasn’t Hamilton’s fault, driving into the back of a car along a straight wasn’t one of Hamilton’s sharper moments. Especially when it was a car that should be of little consequence for him in a Grand Prix, as he hit Franco Colapinto’s Alpine in a move that just suggested a lack of spatial consideration from the British driver.

What should have been a straightforward, largely forgettable move instead turned into a race-destroying impact, and even if Hamilton limped around for half the race, his day was done, with no chance of rescuing a result to salvage Ferrari’s day after Charles Leclerc was eliminated in a collision with podium-contending rivals that the Monegasque was largely innocent in.

This was after Leclerc had taken third place on the grid, while Hamilton could only manage 13th in another nondescript display.

While Hamilton can lean into the excuses this year, his first with the team, the great reset of 2026 offers plenty of hope, but, at the same time, will prove damning if the inconsistencies of Hamilton’s performances continue.

Incidents like driving into the back of another car with minimal closing speed are not regulation-dependent, and it’s hard to imagine the Lewis of a decade ago making such a glaring error.

As for Ferrari, it was a weekend of ignominy due to on-track incidents rather than team decisions, and, in a season where Red Bull has raced with essentially one car, the Scuderia now trails the Milton Keynes-based squad in the points standings.

Bizarrely, Brazil marked the third double-non-finish of the season for Ferrari (one event being a double disqualification), the only team of the top four to have any at all.

For a driver combination like Leclerc and Hamilton, surely there should have been more on the table this year.

Winner: Ollie Bearman

The British driver is getting used to delivering near the sharp end all of a sudden, isn’t he?

Qualifying eighth, he pulled off a stellar move to pass Liam Lawson early on, and utilised the two-stop strategy, using the medium tyres, to slice his way to sixth place in the closing stages, with some daring and decisive moves into Turn 1.

On a run of points finishes, Bearman is delivering upon the potential of the VF-25 ever since its late upgrade package was introduced in Austin.

Any chance of Esteban Ocon managing a similar feat was stymied by the French driver picking up a puncture just a few moments after Verstappen’s; unlike the Dutch driver’s fortuitous timing, Ocon had to pit just as the race resumed, costing him significantly more time.

While the argument over the most impressive rookie of F1 2025 was an easy one earlier in the year, as Isack Hadjar found his feet quickest of the lot, Bearman is now staking his claim for that particular accolade.

Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto

He’s had quite a few incredible moments as a rookie this year, but unfortunately, his first home race wasn’t one of them.

Rubens Barrichello, infamously, suffered from horrific hometown luck during his long career, and Bortoleto’s first outing in Sao Paulo was one to forget; at least, once the aches and pains of his terrifying crash in the Sprint race have faded.

Bortoleto’s crash was ferocious, attributable to a mixture of factors to destabilise his car on his daring dive into Turn 1; a moment of youthful exuberance, no doubt spurred on by the cacophonous noise of a rapturous home audience.

Sauber’s hard work rewarded Bortoleto with the ability to take part in his home race following an extensive rebuild. But, having climbed to 15th and challenging Lance Stroll on the opening lap, he found himself pushed out of space by the Aston Martin driver and, once again, found the barriers.

In this case, it appeared Stroll was more to blame and somewhat unaware of Bortoleto’s presence, but the Brazilian probably could have been a little more circumspect, with a long race ahead.

Post-race footage showed Bortoleto with his family in the pitlane, with the young man tearful as he hugged his grandmother. The enormity of the occasion, racing in front of home fans that once cheered on Ayrton Senna at the same venue, cannot be underestimated, and this likely played a part in Bortoleto’s risk-taking in his desire to thrill and awe the fans in a similar fashion to how his compatriot once did.

If ever there was an understandable reason for perhaps racing with the head/heart ratio perhaps slightly askew, it’s in Bortoleto’s exact circumstances this weekend; it will be his responsibility in his future to better manage those emotions.

“It’s been a really tough weekend for me, even more so because it was my first home race and I was really hoping to have a good one in front of my family and fans,” he said after.

“You always hope to do a good job, or at least have a solid race, and not being able to complete even a single lap was very hard to take in.

“I had a good start, gained a position right away, and was going for another move when I made contact with Lance [Stroll]. It was a first-lap racing incident, and these things can happen; that’s racing.”

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