Lando Norris Won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and Mercedes Clinched the Constructors’ Title: What It Means
Lando Norris led every meaningful lap at Interlagos on Sunday, and Mercedes walked away with the thing it had been chasing for five years.
Norris won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole, his third victory of 2026, holding off Max Verstappen by 14.602 seconds across 71 wet-then-dry-then-wet laps. George Russell finished fourth and Kimi Antonelli fifth, and those two results handed Mercedes the 2026 Constructors’ Championship with three races still to run.
Mercedes now sits on 652 points to Ferrari’s 510. With 129 points left available, a 142-point lead is mathematically untouchable.
Mercedes Is Back on Top for the First Time Since 2021
This is their ninth constructors’ title, which moves them level with Williams and third on the all-time list. The previous eight came consecutively from 2014 through 2021, and then the ground-effect era arrived and Mercedes spent four seasons building cars its own drivers could not explain.
“Winning the world championship is a proud moment for every member of our team,” said Toto Wolff, who runs the operation. “I’m so proud for the organisation. Not many teams have been able to come back from such a situation.”
Verstappen Started 21st and Finished Second
Red Bull fitted Verstappen a new power unit before qualifying, which pushed him past his season allowance and triggered a 30-place grid penalty. He lined up 21st. He finished second, and he spent most of the afternoon convinced the car was broken.
“Starting P21 and making our way up to P2 was a crazy result,” he said afterward. He was less diplomatic about the machine itself, calling it “a disaster to drive” and saying it was “really, really bad.” On team radio mid-race he described doing 85 percent of the distance with a car he did not trust.
Isack Hadjar took third from seventh on the grid, giving Red Bull both remaining podium places. Lewis Hamilton made his 400th Formula 1 start and finished ninth after a 75-place grid demotion of his own.
The Champion Finished Fifth and Was Furious
Antonelli already has the drivers’ title. He clinched it on Nov. 1 in Mexico City by finishing third, at 20 years old, making him the youngest world champion in the sport’s history by more than three years and the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
He did not enjoy Sunday. “I’m disappointed with my race today because I really felt the win was there,” he said. “I’m very angry, to be fair, but I’m going to put all this aside for now, because the team clinched the title.”
He spun, flat-spotted all four tyres, and told Sky Sports the team needs to check the geometry at the rear of the car because the problem only appeared in left-hand corners. He did set the fastest lap of the race.
Antonelli has nine wins and 16 podiums this season and 390 points. Verstappen is second on 279. Russell is third on 262, Hamilton fourth on 261, and Charles Leclerc fifth on 249 after a five-second penalty for contact with Liam Lawson.
Norris Is Sixth, Which Should Not Be Possible
Here is the strangest number in Formula 1 right now: the reigning world champion is sixth in the standings with 246 points.
Norris won the 2025 title. He has three wins this year and three consecutive poles at Interlagos, and he still sits behind both Mercedes drivers, both Ferraris and Verstappen. McLaren is fourth in the constructors’ table on 398 points.
“It was a very tough race, very, very tough,” Norris said. “The main thing today was I just kept it cool and I didn’t make any mistakes.”
He made one. On the podium he knocked his champagne bottle against the floor and broke it in half, then stood holding the pieces while Verstappen and Hadjar sprayed theirs. “This is the first time ever that it has happened to me,” he told Canal+. “On a cold day like today, it was too hard.”
Three rounds remain: Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The championships are settled. The racing is not.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
