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F1 in Brazil: You’ve got to keep your tires alive
A topsy-turvy grid and intermittent rain resulted in a very entertaining race.
In sports, a “dead rubber” is a match that takes place after the outcome of the series or championship has already been decided. The people in charge hate this*—if you wrap up a title two-thirds of the way through a season, the viewers evaporate, as there’s nothing left at stake. But anyone who decided to skip this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix this past weekend missed one of the year’s most entertaining races, as a combination of a mixed-up starting order, some very fast drivers at the back, and a wet track that dried and then saw rain again resulted in action aplenty.
A peculiarity of F1 is that even if you manage to win a championship, there’s no guarantee you’ll be in a position to defend it. Take McLaren’s Lando Norris, who took the crown in 2025 after a nail-biting fight with his teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Sadly for Lando, McLaren did not start this year in a position to win races, and even with several upgrades, the team has produced a car that is still very tricky to drive. But this weekend in Brazil, Norris demonstrated the form that earned him the number 1.
Rain on Saturday during qualifying helped jumble the usual running order. It was heavy enough that drivers used the wet weather tire with deep treads, which usually generates so much spray that visibility disappears and running has to be suspended. But with fewer cars on track in the later knockout qualifying sessions, this was not a problem for once. More disruption came from grid penalties for Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, both of whom needed to use extra power unit components outside of the season’s allowance.
Norris claimed pole, with this year’s new champion, Kimi Antonelli, alongside in his Mercedes. Row two was filled with the unusual sight of Liam Lawson’s Racing Bull and Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi, followed by Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman’s Haas. Next was George Russell in the other Mercedes, then the even more unusual sight of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, normally found much farther back. One could say the same about William’s Alex Albon, who qualified ninth ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
It looked like it was going wrong for Norris right from the start of the race. Antonelli made a better start and passed him into turn 1. Lawson followed through into second place at the next corner. But Norris kept his head down, and by lap six, he was past the Racing Bull, with about five seconds to make up on Antonelli.
Well-timed pit stops saw Norris switch to the right tires at the right time, and he made none of his rivals’ mistakes, even when the rain returned in the final few laps—at least until the podium ceremony, when he tried to fizz his champagne bottle but instead shattered it.
Keeping one’s tires in the right operating window was vitally important in Brazil, but more than a few struggled with it. The Mercedes duo appeared to struggle to generate sufficient tire temperatures, and their cars looked difficult to handle, prompting plenty of complaints from both Russell and Antonelli to the garage. Russell had been progressing well and ran in the top three early in the race but spun after leaving the pit lane for his first stop, ending up facing the wrong way.
A few laps later, Antonelli spun his own car from the lead, this time going into turn 1, letting Norris back into first. Antonelli then did it again four laps later, ending fourth. Eventually, the Mercedes finished with Russell in fourth and Antonelli in fifth. But the team sealed its Constructors’ Championship, so there was still plenty of celebrating despite the relatively mediocre results (by Mercedes’ high standards).
It’s worth watching the in-car footage from the first couple of laps from both Hamilton and Verstappen, who lined up 20th and 21st out of 22 cars. By the end of lap 1, Hamilton was already in ninth and making things look easy—then again,