In 2024 Lando Norris’s championship hopes suffered a fatal blow when he failed to win from pole position at Interlagos.
Max Verstappen claimed an unlikely victory in a rain-hit race from 17th on the grid, putting him on course to retain his championship crown.Norris has made amends since then, however, winning the next two grands prix at Interlagos from pole position. Both times he prevented Verstappen from completing another impressive back-to-front charge: the Red Bull driver finished second on Sunday from the penultimate place on the grid, just as he did 12 months earlier.
However as there are two more cars in the field this year, Verstappen’s charge to second place came from 21st position on the grid (he was actually the 20th car on the grid as Valtteri Bottas’s Cadillac was pushed into the pit lane). This is the lowest starting position anyone has taken second place from since the 1983 Long Beach Grand Prix, when Niki Lauda charged there from 23rd.
Lauda started one place behind his team mate John Watson, who led him home in a McLaren one-two, setting the record for the lowest grid position from which a grand prix has been won.
McLaren may not have managed a one-two last weekend but Norris took his 14th grand prix victory, giving him as many as a trio of multiple world champions: Jack Brabham, Graham Hill and Emerson Fittipaldi. This was also his 20th pole position, the latter giving him as many as Damon Hill and Valtteri Bottas.
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Norris reached the podium for the 50th time in his career. Verstappen, meanwhile, took his eighth podium finish in a row, which is the longest streak any driver has managed this year.
Liam Lawson finished seventh for the second race in a row. He has now scored enough points for Racing Bulls to single-handedly put them fifth in the constructors’ championship.
Lewis Hamilton became the second driver in Formula 1 history to record his 400th grand prix start. He joins Fernando Alonso, who reached 400 two years ago:
| Lewis Hamilton | Fernando Alonso | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Team | Race | Result | Team | Race | Result |
| 100th | McLaren | 2012 German Grand Prix, Hockenheim | DNF (puncture) | McLaren | 2007 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps | 3rd |
| 200th | Mercedes | 2017 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps | 1st | Ferrari | 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain | 8th |
| 300th | Mercedes | 2022 French Grand Prix, Paul Ricard | 2nd | McLaren | 2018 British Grand Prix, Silverstone | 8th |
| 400th | Ferrari | 2026 Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos | 9th | Aston Martin | 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, Losail | 7th |
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For the second race in a row, Haas ran a new driver, but this time their rookie did not manage to bag a point. Rafael Camara made his debut in his home race, becoming the first driver to do so since Germany’s Markus Winkelhock in the 2007 European Grand Prix, held at the Nurburgring.
Lance Stroll’s race ended in retirement yet again. That was the 14th time this year he has not been classified – failing to complete 90% of the race distance – equalling the all-time record which has been set on five other occasions by four drivers.
These are Andrea de Cesaris twice (in 1986 with Minardi and 1987 with Brabham), Piercarlo Ghinzani (in 1986 with Osella), Ivan Capelli (in 1989 with Leyton House) and Rubens Barrichello (in 1997 with Stewart).
It remains possible for Stroll to match or even exceed the record for most retirements in a season. De Cesaris set this in 1987 when he started but was not running at the end of all 16 rounds. In addition to his 14 non-classifications he ran out of fuel before completing the final lap at Spa (but was classified third) and spun out with four laps to go in the final race at Adelaide, taking eighth place.
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Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Brazilian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.