Overview
- Lando Norris converted sprint and Grand Prix poles into a Brazil double, lifting his championship lead to 49 points over Max Verstappen and 24 over Oscar Piastri with three races and a sprint left.
- Max Verstappen started from the pit lane after Red Bull reverted underbody elements, radically reset the set-up and fitted a fifth power unit, then climbed to third at the flag.
- A slow puncture on lap 7 forced an early stop, but the concurrent Virtual Safety Car cut time loss and let Red Bull abandon the hard tyre for an aggressive multi‑stint recovery.
- Red Bull called Verstappen for a third stop while he briefly led; team boss Laurent Mekies said a win was unrealistic given degradation, and Verstappen finished P3, missing second by three tenths.
- Ferrari suffered a double retirement after collisions as Lewis Hamilton decried the stewards and labeled his season an “Albtraum,” with Mercedes stretching its gap for P2 and Red Bull moving ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.