2024 Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Highlights

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the 2024 Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

During the Formation Lap, Stroll goes off and beaches his car in the gravel, aborting the start. It’s light out, and Russell gets a good start, overtaking Lando by the first corner. Oscar has a busy start, fighting with Alonso and Gasly on the first lap, moving up one place to P7. Verstappen overtakes Oscar, demoting him back to P8. Oscar and Lawson make contact, which results in Lawson losing three places. Oscar moves up to P7. A Virtual Safety Car is called on Lap 28 after Hulkenberg retires. Oscar boxes for fresh Inters and ends up in P8. Lando also pits for Inters and comes out in P5. Oscar gets a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Lawson. Lando overtakes Russell on Lap 30 for P4. A Safety Car is called due to heavy rain conditions. A Red Flag is waved after Colapinto crashes. All cars return to the pit lane. The race resumes with a rolling start. Lando locks up and is overtaken. Lando is now P5, Oscar P7. A Safety Car is deployed after Sainz retires. Lando goes wide on the restart and falls back to P7. Oscar is now P6. On Lap 46, Lando and Oscar swap positions. The rain starts to ease, and the grid settles. Sixty-nine laps later, the Chequered Flag waves. Lando finishes P6, with Oscar in P8 following his time penalty.

Lando Norris

A tough afternoon. Pitting under the VSC was pivotal, but it was the right time to box, and we were unlucky because the Red Flag followed soon after, so I have no regrets about stopping when I did. With the Red Flag rule regarding tyre changes, some days you gain, and some days you lose, it just is what it is. These things happen in racing. The main thing now is that we keep our heads down and prepare for the next one as a team.

Oscar Piastri

It was a tricky afternoon, but we got points with both cars and stayed ahead in the Championship. We just lacked pace, and the weather caused havoc, so there wasn’t much more we could have done. We’ll review it all this evening, but I’m looking forward to a bit of a reset, and we can then go again to Vegas. We still have a lot of work to do in the final three races.

Andrea Stella

It’s been an eventful day in São Paulo, which is unsurprising given the variable conditions. Congratulations to Max, who made an impressive recovery from the back of the grid, and also to Alpine for a double-podium finish.

Circumstances didn’t play out in our favour today. The timing of the Red Flag, particularly after we’d changed tyres, was unfortunate. It was difficult for both Lando and Oscar to make progress today. We didn’t give them a car with enough pace to overtake in a race without the DRS being activated. Unfortunately, we also got a penalty when Oscar contacted Liam Lawson, which cost us a position at the end of the race.

Overall, however, we come out of this weekend having increased our margin in the Constructors’ Championship. It’s an incredibly tough competition this year, so I want to praise the work of Lando and Oscar today for staying on track, finishing the race, and allowing us to outscore our nearest rivals. Also, to everyone back in Woking for delivering the upgrades and updates over the last three races, and a big thank you to the entire team for their efforts and the great work they have done in this busy triple header.

There’s learning to take onboard for today; we’ll do that in the days ahead. Our focus now shifts to the final three races of the season.

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