Norris wins Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race, widens lead over Piastri to 9 points

Lando Norris won Saturday's sprint race at the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix and widened his lead in the drivers' championship race to nine points after his teammate and main rival Oscar Piastri failed to finish the 24 laps at the historic and partially wet Interlagos track.

Norris, who started in pole position, added eight points and now has 365 in the standings. Piastri, who spun on turn 3 and crashed onto the wall as did Alpine's Franco Colapinto, remains with 356 ahead of Sunday's race.

The McLaren driver finished ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and George Russell in a sprint race that was also marked by crashes, including a hard hit of home-crowd favorite Gabriel Bortoleto onto the wall in the final lap.

“Kimi certainly wasn't making my life easier,” Norris said after the sprint race. “Definitely not an easy race, always expect a difficult one in Brazil.” Red Bull's Max Verstappen ended in 4th position. Norris is coming off a win in Mexico City.

For the sprint pole, Norris beat Antonelli by only 0.097 seconds and Piastri was just 0.185s behind.

Piastri has struggled lately; he's winless in five races and has not reached the podium since Monza in Italy two months ago when he finished third.

Verstappen, who aims to become the fourth driver to win five world titles, knows how to win in Brazil after victories in 2019, 2023 and 2024, when he fought from 17th at the start.

Rain is expected toward the end of Saturday, when race qualyifing takes place, and throughout Sunday. A year ago, the qualifying was canceled and moved to Sunday due to torrential downpours.