This year's edition of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos served up its usual fascinating challenges and surprises. The race was great, perhaps only missing a late surprise or crescendo.

I must first congratulate the whole Mercedes Benz team, car and power unit combined, for once again winning the Constructors' Championship for a ninth time as a team.

A tally which draws team boss Toto Wolff level with Sir Frank Willams as the most in F1 history, and with a further eight Mercedes drivers' titles on his watch, equalling Sir Ron Dennis' combined total of 17 as team principal. That's outstanding company in the hierarchy of F1. Well done to every person concerned.

Driver of the weekend for me was Lando Norris, although we didn't have the chance to witness the full extent of Max Verstappen's talents, more of which later. Max was voted the fans' driver of the day for the sixth time in the last seven races.

There has been relatively little wet running in the all-new 2026 cars, Sepang notwithstanding, and none in Interlagos until the 'qualifying hour', which took a total of 146 minutes to conclude, with Lando on pole position.

The rain fell heavily and the cars floated around even on full wet tyres, and so it had to be red flagged for a good while. Luckily there was a window here and there to get the whole process done, even if the last six minutes on a once more saturated track understandably saw no action.

George Russell was aggrieved he didn't 'win' qualifying before he took his five-place grid penalty for needing an extra internal combustion engine over and above the annual allowance. George came across Alex Albon's Williams during a small window in the level of water on the track, and together with his pit wall decided to abandon that lap and make some space for a final effort, but it was too wet. If they had continued, there's a chance it would have been provisional pole, and George needs every ounce of good news he can find at the moment.

He was in fine form all weekend, saying he felt like his old self despite the conditions, but a spin in the pit lane after his first stop in the race may well be the image which sums up his year. He'll bounce back, I have no doubt.

'Another Max special'

Through all the trials and tribulations emerged Lando in his upgraded McLaren, the only team to have new parts in Brazil as the season heads towards conclusion. The track had been resurfaced in places too, and it was a mission to find the best grip whilst not dismantling the car against the barriers.

The higher ride height and more supple 2026 cars looked quite controllable in the conditions as it turned out, but the skills on show were impressive to say the least.

Rafael Camara had a baptism of fire on his F1 debut for the Haas team, in Esteban Ocon's seat, at his home Grand Prix. He clouted the turn three exit barriers hard in Q1 but survived to make Q2, where he once again made it nose first into the turn 12 barriers on the cruel downhill wet grass. In the race, he would cross the line 20th and in last place, having achieved seven of the overall 22 track limit infringements, but at least he saw the flag, albeit two laps down.

Verstappen was taking a host of power unit penalties and guaranteed to start from the back of the grid and so only participated in the first part of qualifying. Saving some of the precious rain tyres, limited to two sets of full wets and five sets of intermediate tyres for the whole weekend, was paramount given that the race was expected to be wet.

From 21st and the back row, Max would carve through many cars even before the exit of turn three, including Charles Leclerc who started his Ferrari in 14th. We then witnessed another Max special as he finished second at the flag, beaten only by Lando on imperious form.

It must be said that his Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar had a fine race too for the final spot on the podium. He was asked to move over for the flying Verstappen at one point and then appeared to hang onto his gearbox with relative ease, although at the finish he was 9.8 seconds behind his team leader, who was similarly 14.6 seconds behind Lando.

With Oscar Piastri finishing down in sixth place after pitting a lap too late for the final set of intermediate tyres once the rain kicked in again on lap 61 of 71, this meant that McLaren and Red Bull earned 33 points each in their battle for third in the Constructors', which is advantage Red Bull heading into the final three races.

Ups and downs for Mercedes, Hamilton

Kimi Antonelli led the opening stages on intermediates after an excellent start, but as soon as he went onto dry tyres on lap 17 his race began to unravel. Struggling for warm-up of the tyres and therefore confidence too, he spun off in the first corner and flat spotted his tyres, which handed the lead to Lando before he then quickly came under pressure from both Red Bulls.

Like George in the sister Mercedes, he was experiencing a weird feeling in the car of something broken and pulling one way, and that remained a mystery to the team even at the airport later that evening. Perhaps it was a mismatch of tyre temperatures and pressures, perhaps the unique track layout and surfacing, including the numerous sections diamond cut to aid drainage and reduce aquaplaning.

Russell had a strong and very long middle stint, such that pitting for intermediate tyres on lap 61 meant he undid some of the lost time from that pit-exit spin to end up fourth and ahead of his newly-crowned world champion team-mate Antonelli in fifth.

In true Interlagos chaotic style, this meant the only time a Mercedes driver was on the podium post-race was for the team's Constructors' Championship celebrations.

Lewis Hamilton, like Verstappen, had a tremendous start from 20th on the grid and moved swiftly forward. However, his starting intermediate tyres seem less happy than most and he was first over the radio to urgently want to pit, and indeed to pit, on lap 14.

Lewis had read early that it was time for dry tyres, although I'm led to believe he was reluctant to pit for intermediates later on which meant a high-speed spin in heading to the pits on lap 62 in the now heavier rain, during which he was lucky not to tear the rear wing off. This meant he was consigned to ninth place at the finish, a lap down.

Ahead of him in eighth was Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who had a strangely anonymous race lacking grip until the final phase on intermediate tyres, which allowed him to pass Niko Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson.

However, during his tussle with Lawson, he nudged the Racing Bulls' rear wheel at turn 12 which attracted a five-second penalty, which in turn elevated Lawson back up to seventh.

Lawson put in yet another strong performance for Racing Bulls, running as high as second in the early stages, to further complicate their decision on driver line up for next season. He's been on fire since returning to the team having substituted for the injured Hadjar in the senior Red Bull team.

That concluded a breathless six F1 races in seven weekends, with a slight breather now before a Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi triple-header to finish the season.

Formula 1 next hits The Strip for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1 from November 20-22. Stream Sky Sports with NOW

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