Formula 1 · São Paulo Grand Prix · Interlagos Sat. Nov. 7, 2026 · four races left

Interlagos, with a champion

Six days after Mexico City made Kimi Antonelli the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history, he topped Friday practice in São Paulo. Now Mercedes want the other trophy, and they can take it on Sunday.

20 years
68 days

Antonelli's age when he clinched the 2026 drivers' title on Nov. 1, more than three years younger than Sebastian Vettel in 2010.

126

Points between Mercedes (630) and Ferrari (504) in the constructors' standings, with 172 still available.

Outscore Ferrari by 3 on Sunday = title
Try the clinch calculator ↓

The weekend, in Central time

Fri. Nov. 6

Practice 1

9:30 am

Fri. Nov. 6

Practice 2

1:00 pm

Sat. Nov. 7

Practice 3

8:30 am

Sat. Nov. 7

Qualifying

12:00 pm

Sun. Nov. 8

Grand Prix, 71 laps

11:00 am

Local start times are 12:30 and 16:00 Friday, 11:30 and 15:00 Saturday and 14:00 Sunday (Brasília time, three hours ahead of Chicago). Not a sprint weekend: none of the last four rounds has one.

Friday: Norris first, then the champion

Lando Norris, last year's São Paulo winner, led the opening hour. In the second session Antonelli went quickest on the hard tyre as gloom turned to drizzle, with the top five covered by about a third of a second.

Practice 1
Pos	Driver	Time / gap
1	Lando Norris McLaren	1:11.717
2	Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	+0.082
3	Max Verstappen Red Bull	+0.236
4	Lewis Hamilton Ferrari	+0.324
5	George Russell Mercedes	+0.386

Practice 2
Pos	Driver	Time / gap
1	Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	1:10.763
2	Lando Norris McLaren	+0.253
3	Max Verstappen Red Bull	+0.259
4	George Russell Mercedes	+0.273
5	Oscar Piastri McLaren	+0.321

The Ferraris were sixth (Hamilton) and seventh (Leclerc) in FP2. Leclerc reported a brake problem early and said being squeezed toward the wall on a push lap cost him about two-tenths; Hamilton locked up into Turn 1 and fought his tyres.
Antonelli's FP2 time was 0.223 seconds off the circuit's lap record, 1:10.540 by Valtteri Bottas in 2018, and he set it on the hardest compound.
FP1 was busy with rookies, among them Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad and several young stand-ins such as Rafael Câmara for Haas on his F1 debut at home in Brazil. A stoppage by Audi's Freddie Slater brought out the red flag, and Audi's problems kept Nico Hülkenberg out of FP2.
Verstappen, who won in Mexico, was third in both sessions after complaining about his downshifts and steering on the radio.

The constructors' clinch calculator

After Brazil, three races remain, and one team can score at most 43 points a weekend with a one-two. That makes 129 the number: if Mercedes leave Interlagos 129 or more points ahead, Ferrari cannot catch them. Pick Sunday's finishing places and see.

Sunday at Interlagos

Points go 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 for the top ten. Choose a place for each car.

Mercedes 630 pts

Kimi Antonelli

George Russell

Sunday: 0 pts

Ferrari 504 pts

Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc

Sunday: 0 pts

At exactly 129, Ferrari could only draw level by finishing one-two in all three remaining races while Mercedes scored nothing, and Grandprix.com notes Mercedes would still take the title on the first tiebreaker, because they have already won more Grands Prix. Grid places don't matter here: only the finishing order does, and there are no sprints or bonus points left this season.

How Mexico City settled the drivers' title

Antonelli came to Mexico 123 points clear of George Russell and needed only ninth place. He finished third, behind Max Verstappen, who won from fifth on the grid, and Lewis Hamilton, who had taken his first pole for Ferrari and his first anywhere since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton

Ferrari · +0.799s

Verstappen

Red Bull

Antonelli

Mercedes · +4.006s

Leclerc was fourth, Norris fifth and Russell sixth. Ferrari outscored Mercedes 30 to 23 on the day, which is why the constructors' fight is still technically open. Antonelli, 20, is Italy's first world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953 and only its third ever, after Giuseppe Farina and Ascari. He won nine Grands Prix before Mexico, the first in China in March, and gave Mercedes their first drivers' title since 2020.

Youngest world champions

Kimi Antonelli2026
20 y 68 d
Sebastian Vettel2010
23 y 133 d
Lewis Hamilton2008
23 y 300 d
Fernando Alonso2005
24 y 57 d
Max Verstappen2021
24 y 73 d

Bars start at age 18. Ages at the moment each title was clinched, per Formula1.com.

What's still to race for: second place

The drivers' crown is gone, but the runner-up spot is a scrum: four drivers sit within 16 points of each other.

Kimi AntonelliMercedes · champion380
Max VerstappenRed Bull261
Lewis HamiltonFerrari259
George RussellMercedes250
Charles LeclercFerrari245
Lando NorrisMcLaren221

Verstappen leads Hamilton by two points, Russell by 11 and Leclerc by 16. With 100 points left for any one driver, Norris, 40 back, is also still in range.

Interlagos by the numbers

Lap length

4.309 km

Race distance

71 laps · 305.879 km

Lap record

1:10.540

Bottas, 2018

Direction

Anti‑
clockwise

The Autódromo José Carlos Pace sits between two reservoirs on São Paulo's south side, which is where the Interlagos name ("between lakes") comes from. Its lap opens with the downhill Senna S and ends with a long uphill drag from Junção to the line, where a good exit sets up a pass into Turn 1.

Since the race took the São Paulo Grand Prix name in 2021, winners have started from first, tenth and seventeenth, so Saturday's grid is not the last word. Last year Norris won and Antonelli finished second, holding off Verstappen at the end.

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