2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Having qualified 0.9sec faster than Max Verstappen‘s 16th-fastest Red Bull, Lando Norris took up his pole position and sprinted into the lead as his rival was starting from the pitlane, one place from the back. Norris wouldn’t need to be worrying about Verstappen on this day, surely?

Except… Here was Verstappen leading the race as Norris exited from his second pitstop 8sec behind. McLaren wasn’t sure if Verstappen would be pitting again. He’d already done the compulsory two compounds by starting on the hards and switching to mediums (under a VSC) on lap 7 as he picked up a slow puncture. This offset his pitstop timings to the rest of the field and allowed him to do most of the race on what was by far the best tyre – the medium. He’d pitted to change to a second set of mediums on lap 34.

As Norris rejoined, there were 21 laps left and he faced the prospect of chasing Verstappen down and maybe having to attempt an overtake on him. Norris had led throughout, pulling out a comfortable gap on Kimi Antonelli‘s Mercedes, but that final stop had put him behind the Red Bull, such was the remarkable pace Verstappen had maintained as he scythed through the field, helped enormously by the enforced timing of the first stop and by being on mediums as Norris was obliged to do a 20-lap middle stint on the less effective soft.