2024 São Paulo Grand Prix

The 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Lenovo Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 3 November 2024 at the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the twenty-first round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship and the fifth Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the sprint format.

Oscar Piastri of McLaren took pole position for the sprint event, and then ceded position to his teammate Lando Norris in the closing laps of the sprint. Norris won his first sprint race ahead of Piastri and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing initially finished third, but was later penalised for a virtual safety car infringement, ending up fourth. Norris took pole position for the main race in a qualifying session disrupted by five red flags, ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Yuki Tsunoda of RB, who qualified in a career-best third.

The wet-weather race was won by Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing, who qualified in 12th place but started 17th after being handed a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his allocation of power unit components, taking both his and Red Bull's first win since the Spanish Grand Prix. The podium was completed by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly of Alpine with the two achieving Team Enstone's first double podium finish since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix with Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean. This also marked the first time since Räikkönen's win at the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix that a driver had won from 17th – or lower – on the grid.

Background

The event was held at the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo for the 41st time in the circuit's history, having previously held thirty-seven editions of the Brazilian Grand Prix, across the weekend of 1–3 November. The Grand Prix was the twenty-first round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship and the fourth held under the name of the São Paulo Grand Prix, having previously been titled the Brazilian Grand Prix. It was also the fifth of six Grands Prix in the season to utilise the sprint format and the fourth time overall that the São Paulo Grand Prix featured it.

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship with 362 points, 47 points ahead of Lando Norris in second, and 71 ahead of Charles Leclerc in third. McLaren, holding 566 points, entered this round as the leader of the Constructors' Championship from Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, who were second and third with 537 and 512 points, respectively.

Entrants

The drivers and teams were initially the same as the season entry list with two exceptions: Franco Colapinto, who replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, and Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at RB from the United States Grand Prix. Reserve driver Oliver Bearman replaced Kevin Magnussen at Haas for the free practice and sprint sessions as Magnussen felt unwell. This was later expanded to the rest of the weekend following sprint qualifying. Alexander Albon of Williams did not take part in the race as his car was not repaired in time following a heavy crash during qualifying.

Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (the softest three in their range) designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at the event.

Practice

The only free practice session was held on 1 November 2024, at 11:30 local time ( UTC−3), and was topped by Lando Norris of McLaren ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Oliver Bearman of Haas.

Sprint qualifying

Sprint qualifying was held on 1 November 2024, at 15:30 local time ( UTC−3), and determined the starting grid order for the sprint.

Sprint qualifying classification

Notes
* – Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu qualified 16th, 19th and 20th, respectively, but were required to start the sprint from the pit lane as their cars were modified under parc fermé conditions.

Sprint

The sprint was held on 2 November 2024, at 11:00 local time ( UTC−3), and was run for 24 laps.

Sprint report

The sprint was held in cloudy conditions, facilitating the usage of slick tyres. Sprint polesitter Oscar Piastri led the majority of the race, but ceded position to Lando Norris to allow his teammate to maximise his points for his championship fight. Both drivers were being trailed by Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing, who had already overtaken Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. On lap 19, a double-waved yellow flag was observed due to Nico Hülkenberg's smoking Haas, who had a mechanical problem with three laps to go, so the McLaren pit wall ordered the drivers to swap positions on lap 22 should the race end under the safety car; McLaren initially planned for the two drivers to swap late in the race, and Piastri was willing to swap positions to aid his teammate. A late virtual safety car was called out shortly after the two drivers swapped positions and after Hülkenberg had vacated his car, and ended on the dying moments of the final lap. Other than Hülkenberg's mechanical failure, there were no major incidents on track. Norris won his first sprint race event ahead of Piastri and Verstappen, who finished third on track, but the latter was placed under investigation following the sprint for a virtual safety car infringement. Verstappen was demoted to fourth after being given a five-second time penalty, and Leclerc inherited third in his place.

Sprint classification

Notes
* – Max Verstappen finished third on track, but received a post-sprint five-second time penalty for a virtual safety car infringement.

Qualifying

Qualifying was scheduled to be held on 2 November 2024, at 15:00 local time ( UTC−3), but was postponed to the following day, at 07:30 local time, due to adverse weather conditions. The session determined the starting grid order for the main race.

Qualifying report

The postponement of qualifying marked the first time in over five years that qualifying was held on the race day, which last occurred at the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix.

Lando Norris took pole position for the race ahead of George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda, the latter achieving his and RB's highest Grand Prix start to date. The qualifying session was beset by rain, and had five separate red flags, due to the crashes of Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz Jr., Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, and Alexander Albon. The latter's crash ruled him out of the race, due to Williams already having had repair work done on Colapinto's car, and Sainz opted to start from the pit lane. The session tied the record for most red flags during qualifying, with the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix's qualifying session also having five red flags.

Qualifying classification

Notes
* – Max Verstappen received a five-place grid penalty for a sixth internal combustion engine.
* – Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified 14th, but was required to start the race from the pit lane for replacing power unit elements and gearbox without the approval of the technical delegate during parc fermé.
* – As qualifying was held on a wet track, the 107% rule was not in force.

Race

The race was scheduled to be held on 3 November 2024, at 14:00 local time ( UTC−3), but was moved to 12:30 local time due to the weather forecast. The race was scheduled to run for 71 laps before being shortened by two laps due to an aborted start procedure.

Race report

The race was held in rainy conditions on a wet track, following on from the qualifying session. All cars used intermediate wet or full wet tyres. Since Alexander Albon did not start the race, his grid slot was left vacant; Carlos Sainz Jr. started from the pit lane. On the formation lap, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll spun, made contact with the wall, and then beached his car in a gravel trap, meaning he did not start the race. With Stroll beached in the gravel, the race director displayed the aborted start message. Polesitter Lando Norris, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, and George Russell misinterpreted this message from race control and erroneously left the grid to perform an additional formation lap. Separately both Mercedes drivers Russell and Hamilton were under investigation due to Mercedes changing the tyre pressures of both cars with the wheels still on the car. Ultimately, fines were issued for Russell, Norris, and the Mercedes team.

The third formation lap began thirteen minutes after the first. At the race start, Russell passed Norris off the line. After starting from the seventeenth grid slot, Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing recovered eleven places by lap 12, up to sixth. On lap 27, Nico Hülkenberg of Haas spun off at the first corner. He was helped back onto the track by marshals, and was later shown the black flag, disqualifying him from the race. This marked the first time since the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix where a driver was black flagged during a race. Hülkenberg's incident triggered a virtual safety car on lap 28, and Russell and Norris pitted in response, allowing Esteban Ocon, Verstappen, and Pierre Gasly to move ahead.

Track conditions worsened as the rain intensified after the race was resumed. On lap 30, Norris passed Russell for the effective lead of the race as both drivers slowly approached turn 4, and the safety car was deployed shortly after due to the lack of visibility. At this point, only five drivers had put on the full wet tyres, with Yuki Tsunoda setting the best times among the field in sixth place. On lap 32, still under the safety car period, Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams heavily between turns 13 and 14, bringing out the red flag and delaying the session further. As a result, Ocon, Verstappen, and Gasly were able to change tyres during the red flag period, effectively jumping Norris and Russell.

After the restart, Ocon retained the lead and pulled a small margin over Verstappen, while Norris made a mistake and went off the track. Ocon held the lead until Carlos Sainz Jr. crashed on lap 39, bringing out the safety car. On the next restart, Verstappen quickly passed Ocon, going on to open a big lead by setting the fastest lap on 17 different occasions. His title rival Norris fell to seventh place following the restart after locking up into turn 1 and going off the track again. While teammate Oscar Piastri would give him sixth place, he would make no further progress for the rest of the race.

The race was won by Verstappen, 19 seconds ahead of Ocon and Gasly. This was the third race to be won from 17th on the grid. Ocon and Gasly's double podium was Alpine's first of the season. This also marked the first podium for both the Alpine team and a Renault powered car since the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. The result extended Verstappen's drivers championship lead to 62 points with a maximum of 86 points still remaining over the final three rounds. In the Constructors' Championship, Alpine more than tripled their points total from 16 points to 49, improving their position from ninth to sixth, ahead of Haas with 46 points, RB with 44 points, and Williams with 17 points.

Race classification

Notes
* – The race distance was scheduled to be completed for 71 laps before being shortened by two laps due to an aborted start procedure.
* – Includes one point for fastest lap.
* – Oscar Piastri finished seventh, but received a ten-second time penalty for causing a collision with Liam Lawson.
* – Alexander Albon did not start the race as his car was not repaired in time following a heavy crash in qualifying. His place on the grid was left vacant.
* – Lance Stroll did not start the race as he beached his car during the formation lap. His place on the grid was left vacant.
* – Nico Hülkenberg was disqualified after receiving assistance from marshals to rejoin the track after a spin at turn 1.

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sao Paulo Grand Prix, 2024
São Paulo
Grand Prix
2024
São Paulo Grand Prix