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, ultimately taking fourth place. 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. His victory in tricky conditions is considered one of his greatest drives. 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 DriverConstructorSprintgridSQ1SQ2SQ3181 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1:10.2651:09.2391:08.899124 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:09.4771:09.0631:08.9282316 Charles LeclercFerrari1:10.3881:09.2481:09.153341 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:10.4091:09.489 1:09.219 4555 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:10.5031:09.5001:09.257 5663 George RussellMercedes1:10.4791:09.6831:09.4436710 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1:10.6301:09.6101:09.6227830 Liam LawsonRB-Honda RBPT1:10.5761:09.8271:09.9418923 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:10.3661:09.8441:10.07891050 Oliver BearmanHaas-Ferrari1:10.4421:09.629No time101144 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:10.6251:09.941N/A111227 Nico HülkenbergHaas-Ferrari1:10.4661:09.964N/A121311 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:10.3921:10.024N/A131443Williams-Mercedes1:10.4701:10.275N/A141577 Valtteri BottasKick Sauber-Ferrari1:10.8611:10.595N/A151614 Fernando AlonsoAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes1:10.978N/AN/A1731 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault1:11.052N/AN/A161822 Yuki TsunodaRB-Honda RBPT1:11.121N/AN/A171918 Lance Stroll1:11.280N/AN/A2024 Zhou GuanyuKick Sauber-Ferrari1:12.978N/AN/A107% time: 1:14.340Source: Notes
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 DriverConstructorTime/RetiredPoints1 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 24 29:46.045 2 82 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 24 +0.593 1 7316 Charles LeclercFerrari24 +5.6563641 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT24 +6.49745555 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari24 +7.224546 63 George Russell Mercedes 24 +12.475 6 3710 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault 24 +18.1617 2811 Sergio Pérez Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT24 +18.71713 1930 Liam Lawson RB-Honda RBPT 24 +20.77381023 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 24 +24.606 91144 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 24 +29.76411 1243 Williams-Mercedes 24 +33.233141331 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 24 +34.128161450 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 24 +35.507101522 Yuki Tsunoda RB-Honda RBPT24 +41.374171677 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber-Ferrari 24 +43.231151724 Zhou GuanyuKick Sauber-Ferrari24 +54.13918 14 Fernando Alonso 24 +56.5371918 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes24 +57.98327Haas-Ferrari19 Gearbox12Fastest lap: Sergio Pérez (Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT) – 1:11.678 (lap 24)Source: Notes
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 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 at the time, with the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix's qualifying session also having five red flags.
Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q314 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:30.9441:24.8441:23.4051263 George RussellMercedes1:29.1211:26.3071:23.5782322 Yuki TsunodaRB-Honda RBPT1:29.1721:26.4641:24.1113431 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:29.1711:26.2061:24.4754530 Liam LawsonRB-Honda RBPT1:30.7581:25.6541:24.4845616 Charles LeclercFerrari1:29.8391:26.0971:24.5256723 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:29.0721:25.8891:24.6577881 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1:30.1141:25.1791:24.6868914 Fernando Alonso1:30.2071:25.0351:28.99891018 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes1:30.5801:26.334No time101177 Valtteri BottasKick Sauber-Ferrari1:30.6331:26.472N/A11121 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:28.5221:27.771N/A171311 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:30.0351:28.158N/A121455 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:30.3031:29.406N/A1510 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1:29.4201:29.614N/A131644 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:31.150N/AN/A141750 Oliver BearmanHaas-Ferrari1:31.229N/AN/A151843Williams-Mercedes1:31.270N/AN/A161927 Nico HülkenbergHaas-Ferrari1:31.623N/AN/A182024 Zhou GuanyuKick Sauber-Ferrari1:32.263N/AN/A19107% time: 1:34.718Source: Notes
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.