McLaren driver Lando Norris won the sprint race of the Brazilian Grand Prix this Saturday at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, to cut the gap with Max Verstappen, the championship leader.
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But Norris had to thank his teammate Oscar Piastri for giving him the victory at the José Carlos Pace Circuit. The British driver started in second position on the grid and towards the end of the 24-lap race, the Australian handed him the first place by team order, just before the race was neutralized by a Virtual Safety Car.
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Why did the stewards penalize Max Verstappen?
Verstappen, from the Red Bull team, finished third, but lost a position due to an infringement during the Virtual Safety Car. This allowed Charles Leclerc from Ferrari to move up to the podium.
The stewards justified their decision to penalize Verstappen in the sprint race as the Dutch driver was "above the minimum time at the end of the virtual safety car." The Red Bull driver received a five-second penalty and also accumulated one penalty point, bringing his total to seven for the year.
Now, with four awards and a sprint left, Verstappen's lead over Norris has been reduced to 44 points.
After the sprint race, Norris acknowledged that "I'm not proud of that, but we worked well as a team so I thank Oscar. He deserved the victory but we did what we had to do."
Why were the classifications of the Brazilian GP postponed?
The sprint race took place in the morning with dry track conditions, but later in the afternoon, heavy rain at the Interlagos track forced the qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix to be postponed to Sunday.
The organizers canceled the Saturday session after a two-hour delay in hopes of better weather.
"The decision was made due to the lack of visibility caused by the level of rain we had in the last hours. There is a lot of stagnant water in parts of the circuit, which makes the conditions unsafe," announced the FIA on social media. "Although we would like to see competition on the track, the safety of the drivers, team members, volunteers, officials, and spectators is our priority."
The classifications will start at 7:30 am local time and the start of the Grand Prix was also moved up from 2 pm to 12:30 pm.
"This will ensure that we maximize the opportunities to offer fans a day of racing action, and both the FIA and F1 believe that this change is necessary and right for our passionate followers," stated the FIA in a statement.
Max Verstappen will have a tough task ahead, as after making adjustments to his engine for the sixth time this season, he received a five-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix starting position...if it takes place, as the weather forecast predicts rain throughout the day in Sao Paulo.