Lando Norris won his third race for the year and Mercedes were popping champagne for a second straight week in a wet and wild Brazil Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.
Pole sitter Norris finished 14.6 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, who came from 21st on the grid and was joined on the podium by Red Bull teammates Isaak Hadjar, to claim back-to-back wins at Interlagos.
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Norris’ most memorable act of the race, however, came on the podium when he accidentally smashed his champagne bottle to pieces after banging it against the ground.
The Briton then stood still, holding the neck of the bottle, as he was soaked in champagne from the Red Bull drivers.
Remarkably there were no safety cars or virtual safety cars despite the poor weather as Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli came fourth and fifth, while Australia’s Oscar Piastri finished sixth.
Piastri made up significant ground having started from 12th place on the grid after a disappointing qualifying, but late in the race the McLaren driver paid the price for a late tyre switch to deal with heavier rain, finishing 20.4 second behind Antonelli.
“The people who went later by switching to inters lost significant amounts of time,” Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins said.
“Look at Piastri. He was close to the Mercedes but is now 19s behind.”
Regardless, Norris secured McLaren’s first win since the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
“It was a very tough race, very very tough,” Norris said.
“I didn’t have the best of launches off the line. A lot of challenges today with the conditions and going onto slicks in the wet is always tough, especially when you are pushing for the lead and trying to catch up a little bit.
“The main thing today was I kept it cool and didn’t make any mistakes and had the pace when I needed to. Nice to be back on the top step and what a place to do it as well.”
Norris added: “I’m trying my best. This weekend we had an opportunity to get pole and an opportunity to win, and I feel like most times this year when there’s been an opportunity, I’ve went for it and we’ve been able to achieve it.
“I have to say a big thanks to the team because they are still working very hard.
“It’s annoying when you can’t give them a good result back, like the last few weeks, but certainly this weekend I feel like we have been able to give something back to them and give them a reward for their hard work.
“Always a big thanks to them and we will have to keep pushing until the end of the year.”
Mercedes clinched a ninth constructors’ championship, and their first since 2021, but it was a race that was far from smooth for this year’s dominant team.
“Quite an afternoon. Quite an adventure,” Russell’s race engineer Marcus Dudley said on the team radio.
Mercedes principal Toto Wolff replied: “We secured the championship. I think this is the most important (thing). Thank you for surviving!
“Well done everybody. It’s great to see what we have achieved this year,” Russell added.
Antonelli will be investigated after the race for an unsafe release in the pits, but given the significant gap between him and Piastri, a penalty is unlikely to change the finishing order.
The Italian took the lead from Norris on the opening lap, but last year’s world champion retook first place when the current world champion spun into turn one all by himself on lap 20.
A lap earlier, Antonelli had complained on the team radio that “something is weird with the car” with Mercedes’ engineer Peter Bonnington suggesting it was just cold tyres, replying “the temperatures should come in sector two this time”.
“No, mate, it’s the suspension,” Antonelli insisted.
Two laps after he spun out, he added: “The car is pulling on one side when accelerating, it’s so weird”.
The Italian’s Mercedes teammates George Russell also had his own spinning moment, coming out of pit lane on the 17th lap.
Russell also had complaints about “something weird” with his car in the later stages of the race despite going stronger than Antonelli.
Russell’s teammate even let him through with seven laps to go to chase a podium place.
He could catch the Red Bulls, however, and Verstappen was left wanting more from his race despite his icnredible 20-place surge.
“It was a challenging race,” the four-time world champion said.
“The first few laps were, of course, very important and I overtook a lot of cars. Actually, that first stint on the stints was very, very strong.
“Unfortunately, after that, I don’t know if we picked up some kind of damage, because the car felt like the complete opposite I’ve felt the whole weekend with some really weird balance.
“Once I got into P2 I couldn’t really make any inroads.
“So we have to understand what went wrong there but, I mean, starting in P21 and being on the podium in second is a very good result.”