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Max goes too far (again as far as I'm concerned) and gets two well deserved ten second penalties. I was glad Norris was saved from needing to try another pass as I was sure Max would have taken them both out like he did with Lewis at Monza a few years back.

Max Verstappen climbed up from 17th on the grid to win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, one of his greatest victories taking him to the brink of a fourth world title.

Rival Lando Norris of McLaren had a difficult race, finishing sixth after a couple of key errors, to fall 62 points adrift of Verstappen with 86 still available in the final three races.

Verstappen will become world champion if he leaves the next race at Las Vegas on 23 November with a lead of at least 60 points.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly took the final two podium places to transform Alpine's season and move the team up from ninth in the constructors' championship to sixth.

A chaotic, incident-strewn, wet race that involved a red flag, two safety car periods and a series of crashes and incidents will be remembered for a victory that was not only Verstappen’s 62nd, but one of the greatest wet-weather victories of all time.

Just as remarkably, it was his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix in June, and it owed everything to a driver at the top of his game, and a team making the right strategic decision at the right time.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship with fifth place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The race was won by Mercedes' George Russell, who held off a charge by team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion taking second place from 10th on the grid.

Verstappen’s position behind the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc was more than enough for the Dutchman.

His title rival Lando Norris could manage only sixth for McLaren, his deficit to the Dutchman now 63 points with a maximum of 60 available.

Verstappen joins Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel as a four-time champion, with only Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio ahead of him in that list.

Verstappen wins in Qatar after Norris penalty

Red Bull's Max Verstappen won a dramatic Qatar Grand Prix that was brought to life by two mid-race safety cars and a penalty for McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Verstappen was in a tight fight with Norris throughout the race until the Briton was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags.

The Dutchman was instrumental in getting Norris the penalty after pointing the incident out to his team.

Meanwhile, there will be questions about the management of the race by governing body the FIA, after Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz both suffered punctures.

It is unclear whether the punctures were caused by worn tyres or debris from a wing mirror that had been lying on the pit straight for about three laps before it was smashed by Valtteri Bottas' Sauber. The FIA has not responded to questions as to why the mirror was not cleared up earlier.

The punctures happened shortly after the mirror was hit, and the safety car was called to allow marshals to clear the shattered carbon-fibre and glass.

At the restart, Norris challenged Verstappen, who defended his position robustly, but their tussle was academic, because of the penalty.

The punishment also ended McLaren’s hopes of tying up the constructors' championship in this race.

They now go to the final race in Abu Dhabi next weekend with a 21-point lead over Ferrari and a maximum of 44 points available to score.

Lando Norris secured McLaren's first Formula 1 constructors' championship for 26 years with victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Norris led from start to finish and his fourth win of the season was enough to seal the championship by 14 points, despite Ferrari finishing second and third with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc's brilliant drive after starting 19th on the grid kept the tension high - had anything happened to Norris' car, Ferrari would have clinched the title.

Lewis Hamilton took fourth place in his final race for Mercedes, passing team-mate George Russell around the outside of Turn Nine with six corners of the race to go.

Hamilton did doughnuts on the pit straight after crossing the line and then took a few moments with his car, collecting his thoughts, before congratulating Norris and McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown and consoling Sainz and Leclerc.

Lando Norris and McLaren delivered on their potential with a copybook victory in a demanding Australian Grand Prix in the most difficult of conditions to put their stamp on the start of the new season.

Briton Norris described his win as "stressful but rewarding".

The first adjective was justified by the conditions in a madcap, crash-strewn, incident-packed race where one small error can spell disaster - as it very nearly did for Norris himself at one point.

The second adjective was a recognition of the fact that this was exactly the kind of race in which, last year, McLaren had proved less than perfect, and thrown away at least one potential victory, and perhaps another, too.

But in Melbourne they were as perfect as it is possible to be in conditions such as these - even the renowned rain-master Max Verstappen slipped up at one point. And Norris and McLaren came through the chaos unscathed.

The fine line between victory and defeat was underlined by an incident with 13 laps to go that defined the race.

Norris was leading from team-mate Oscar Piastri and Verstappen as a heavy shower of rain approached the track.

It hit as the leaders were negotiating the final corners on lap 44, with 13 to go.

Both McLarens ran wide on to the gravel at the exit of Turn 12, and Australian Piastri then spun through Turn 13.

Norris was able to continue without losing too much time, but Piastri ended up on the grass on the outside of Turn 12, where he sat with his wheels spinning helplessly for what seemed like an age as his hopes of victory at home evaporated before finally rejoining. He fought back to ninth by the end.

Norris immediately pitted for treaded tyres. That decision won him the race, and demonstrated how far he and the team had come since last year - they had planned that they would pit as soon as it rained, and acted decisively on the plan.

Verstappen stayed out and took the lead, but as the rain intensified he lost more time, and Norris resumed the lead when the Dutchman pitted himself two laps later.

Norris said: "It's so easy to make a mistake, so easy to ruin everything. So quickly it can all have gone wrong within a second.

"Any second of the race, you lock up, you hit the white line wrong, you have a big snap. It was just very, very difficult at times to just not go into a hole or a tyre barrier somewhere.

"That's a big enough challenge, but then when you've got the weather changing and the track conditions changing, knowing when to make the correct decision to change on to a slick tyre and stay out on the inter-tyre, and then even more when I've got Max behind me and Oscar behind me, it's stressful.

"But that's what makes it rewarding.

"We worked a lot over the winter to prepare for a race like this, because it's where we threw away a lot of opportunities last season - Canada, Silverstone, where we were not the best at preparing and knowing how decisive we've got to be.

"Today we were very, very decisive, calling to box five metres before I boxed. But it was the right call in the end, and that won us the race."

The race was not over, though.

In the final five laps after the final restart, Norris had Verstappen right behind him. The McLaren was hampered by significant floor damage - incurred either in the previously mentioned off, or in another in those final laps at Turn Six - but he hung on, despite Verstappen being less than a second behind, and having use of the DRS overtaking aid.

Former F1 boss and TV pundit Jordan dies aged 76

Quote:

Eddie Jordan, the flamboyant former Formula 1 team owner and television pundit, has died aged 76.

The Irishman, who had aggressive prostate cancer, died in the early hours of Thursday morning.

A statement from his family said: "It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Eddie Jordan OBE, the ex-Formula 1 team owner, TV pundit and entrepreneur.

"He passed away peacefully with family by his side in Cape Town in the early hours of 20 March 2025."

Jordan, who was known across the world for his outspoken, mischievous character, achieved rare success as an independent team owner.

His team, which made its debut in 1991, won four grands prix in its 15 years in the sport and challenged briefly for the drivers' championship in 1999, before suffering declining fortunes and being sold in 2005.

Jordan later became a television pundit, first for BBC Sport and then for Channel 4, where his outspoken views were paired with an ability to break major news stories.

Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion who won Jordan's first grand prix in 1998, told BBC Sport: "Eddie was a huge influence on me and many people in motorsport and around the world. There will never be another like him."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1...s/cq8y1335qlwo

Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a dominant McLaren one-two in the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of George Russell's Mercedes.

Piastri's calm, controlled victory made it two wins from two for McLaren at the start of the season following Norris' outstanding drive in the wet in Melbourne last weekend.

The Australian led from pole and lost first place only briefly in the period around the leaders' only pit stops. Piastri was rarely more than four seconds ahead of Norris but always in control.

Norris was struggling with fading brakes in the closing laps but had enough of an advantage to hold Russell at bay.

Charles Leclerc drove an outstanding race in a Ferrari with a damaged front wing, faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who moved out of his way.

But the pair were disqualified after the race - for separate technical infringements - along with Alpine's Pierre Gasly.

During the race, Leclerc lost fourth place to Red Bull's Max Verstappen with four laps to go as the world champion's car found some pace in the second half of the race.

Hamilton, who took an outstanding victory in the shorter sprint race on Saturday, had resisted the team orders call for a couple of laps before letting Leclerc by and then dropped back.

The seven-time champion made a second pit stop, while the other leaders all stayed out on their single set of hard tyres, fitted at their only pit stops.

The result leaves Norris leading the championship by eight points from Verstappen, with Russell a further point adrift, and Piastri one behind Russell.