Mercedes secured the 2026 constructors' title with 2 races remaining. Lando Norris won the Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen, while a penalty for Charles Leclerc promoted Liam Lawson to seventh. Isack Hadjar finished third, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli fourth and fifth for Mercedes.
Charles Leclerc crossed the line seventh in the 8 November São Paulo Grand Prix, but a post-race penalty dropped him to eighth and promoted Liam Lawson to seventh. Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton remained ninth.
Leclerc touched Lawson at the Turn 12 corner before passing him on the penultimate lap. The stewards concluded that the contact disrupted Lawson and allowed Leclerc to close up and overtake, The Race said, citing their verdict.
The stewards said Lawson had the right to the corner under the driving guidelines and Leclerc was responsible for avoiding a collision. They considered the wet conditions and minor contact when choosing the penalty rather than a 10-second sanction. Leclerc had argued that the contact was minor and had no obvious sporting consequence.
Kimi Antonelli and Ollie Bearman also received 5-second penalties for unsafe releases from their pit stops. Their respective fifth- and 17th-place finishes did not change.
McLaren’s Lando Norris won the race by 14.602 seconds from Max Verstappen, who started 21st. Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing teammate Isack Hadjar finished third. It was Norris’s 3rd win of the season and his second consecutive victory in Brazil; Hadjar took his 3rd podium of the season.
It was Norris’s first win since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
Norris started from pole position but lost the lead to Antonelli. After a stop for dry-weather tires brought Norris close behind, Antonelli spun on lap 20 and Norris passed him. Norris said he was eight seconds behind Antonelli before the pit stop and that the timing of his team’s stops helped him apply pressure; he later switched back to wet-weather tires as rain returned.
Antonelli took the lead into the first corner from second on the grid, while Lawson also passed Norris to take second through Turn 2. A few laps before Antonelli lost the lead, Russell spun exiting the pits and lost 15 to 20 seconds after working his way back into podium contention.
Formula 1 told the Italian circuit on 10 November to stand down while retaining plans for Qatar on 27–29 November and Abu Dhabi on 4–6 December; it says it could still cancel the races if conditions deteriorate.
Verstappen said his opening stint on intermediate tires, designed for a damp track, was strong. After switching to dry-weather tires, he said the rear of his car became difficult to control in fast corners; his team needed to establish whether damage or a loss of aerodynamic performance was responsible. Hadjar said the switch to soft tires was difficult, but he was competitive on them and remained quick when rain returned.
On lap 62, Norris pitted for intermediate tires and retained the lead. His advantage was 12.4 seconds on lap 64. On lap 65, Antonelli was ordered to let the faster Russell past.
George Russell finished fourth ahead of Mercedes teammate Antonelli, securing the team’s 9th constructors' championship and its first since 2021. Antonelli had already won the drivers' title a week earlier, giving Mercedes its first double since 2020, when Hamilton won the drivers' championship. The team title was settled with 2 races remaining.
Mercedes needed to outscore second-placed Ferrari by three points in Brazil to secure the constructors’ championship.
In rain-affected qualifying at Interlagos, Norris took pole with a lap of 1 minute 27.470 seconds. Mercedes drivers Russell and Antonelli qualified second and third, 0.204 and 0.625 seconds behind respectively. Verstappen recorded no Q2 time and was classified 16th.
The final grid placed Norris first and Antonelli second, with Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg sharing the second row in third and fourth. Seven drivers received grid penalties: Russell, Leclerc, Arvid Lindblad, Gabriel Bortoleto, Hamilton, Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Russell dropped from second in qualifying to seventh on the grid after a five-place engine-change penalty; Leclerc fell from fourth to 14th after a 10-place penalty for an engine change.
Lindblad qualified 14th, but after his car broke down in Q2, Racing Bulls changed its engine and turbo on race day. His 10-place penalty moved him from 12th on the provisional grid to 18th on the final grid. Audi’s Bortoleto also received a race-day 10-place penalty for a new energy store and control electronics, but remained 19th because Hamilton, Verstappen and Perez had larger penalties.
Hamilton started 20th, Verstappen 21st and Perez 22nd after component-change penalties of 75 places for Hamilton and 30 each for Verstappen and Perez. Hamilton was placed ahead because he set the fastest qualifying time among the drivers required to start at the back.
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Max Verstappen has 30 penalty places, while Lewis Hamilton joins him and Sergio Pérez at the back after Ferrari replaced his power unit.
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Max Verstappen wins the Mexico City Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton as third-placed Kimi Antonelli clinches his first drivers’ title. At 20 years and 68 days, Antonelli becomes Formula 1’s youngest champion and its first Italian champion since 1953, giving Mercedes its 10th drivers’ title and first since 2020.
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