Norris admits he expected McLaren to be ‘a little bit better’ despite ‘rewarding’ victory in Sao Paulo Sprint

Lando Norris has conceded that McLaren have “homework to do” in order to keep their competitors at bay after he came under intense pressure from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli before winning the Sprint in Sao Paulo.

The Briton executed a strong launch to kick off the 24-lap session, charging away from the young Italian racer and maintaining a consistent advantage for the opening stint. However, this was thrown into jeopardy when the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri crashed out of the Sprint.

After his car, along with Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, was recovered under red flag conditions, Norris faced the challenge of controlling a rolling restart on soft tyres around the slippery track.

He got away well while Antonelli went side-by-side with his team mate George Russell, but as Norris’ tyre performance began to fade away, the 19-year-old was able to speed into DRS range and force the McLaren driver to defend right up to the chequered flag.

“It was tough,” Norris summarised. “It makes the win more rewarding when you have a race like this, especially with Kimi here – he was certainly not making my life easy.

“It’s one of those ones where you have to push because you know the guy behind is going to try and push that little bit more. It was sketchy – I had a couple of little lifts, but even with the wind it was tricky.

“With the degradation on the tyres, it was difficult so definitely not an easy race but probably the race you expect here in Brazil.”

He went on to elaborate on the unexpectedly small gap to the Mercedes, concluding that it was “a struggle” to manage the tyres over the final five laps whilst keeping Antonelli behind.

He added: “The Mercedes were quick and Kimi kept me under pressure for the whole race. I just expected us to be a little bit better and we weren’t. I don’t know how much of it was down to the tyres or just that they did a good job and were quick today. We’ve got some homework to do before Qualifying.”

Norris’ victory could prove to be critical in the championship battle as he netted eight points compared to Piastri’s zero, with fellow title contender Max Verstappen settling for P4 and five points.

However, the combination of tight competition across the field and tricky weather conditions make the remaining Qualifying and Sao Paulo Grand Prix far from predictable.

He explained: “I think our Qualifying pace was good, but the wind changed a lot today. The conditions are quite different so today is different to yesterday.

"Tomorrow is going to be another day, but they’re going to put us under pressure, I’m sure. Like they said, it’s small gaps and you’ve got to do some perfect laps.”