NORRIS EXTENDS TITLE LEAD WITH WIN IN BRAZIL

Brazil home of motorsport legends and the location for the twenty first of twenty four races in this ever exciting Championship now between three drivers. It was Lando Norris who now appears to be on a late title charge with a second win in two races after dominating all weekend in Sao Paulo with first in practice and then a win in the Sprint Race for an extra eight points to his name. Young Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli drove superbly to finish second for his best finish in Formula One with Max Verstappen in third after starting in the pit lane in what was another Brazilian masterclass from the reigning World Champion.

It was Lando Norris who got away best from pole, as Kimi Antonelli kept second place with Charles Leclerc in third, and Oscar Piastri in fourth, with the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar rounding up the top five.

A first home weekend as a Formula One driver for Gabriel Bortoleto, only lasted a few corners as the home hero is squeezed onto the grass by Lance Stroll, and ends up in the barriers with his his front wing no longer attached to the car. With his car stranded the Safety Car is deployed.

Bortoleto is stranded and out of his home race and there is also significant damage on the front wing of Lewis Hamilton - his front wing removed itself with the smallest amount of contact with the rear of the Alpine ahead of him.

We get the green flag on lap six and Norris got away well as the chaos ensues behind him when his teammate Piastri and Leclerc sandwich Antonelli into turn one - the McLaren locks up and pushes the Mercedes in to the Ferrari who is out as, the contact ends with the Ferrari having just three wheels left. Deploying the VSC. Piastri is eventually given a ten second time penalty for causing a collision. The VSC ends on lap nine.

It went from bad to worse for Ferrari on lap thirty nine as they are forced to retire Hamilton after his early contact with the Alpine of Colapinto as the team from Maranello suffer yet another double DNF race this season - the most they have suffered since 2020. Hamilton hadn't been able to make an impact after his incident and the damage was affecting the car that the Ferrari couldn't fight others and was sliding around far too much to be drive able.

The next race is the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

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