Max Verstappen recovered to third place after having started in the pitlane, while Norris extends his championship lead with a win in Sao Paulo.
Despite being on a harder compound of tyre, Lando Norris was able to get a good getaway at the start of the race, fending off Antonelli well while Piastri hat to put in a bit more work to keep Hadjar at bay.
Lewis Hamilton had a tough first lap, having initial contact with Sainz at turn 1, losing a handful of positions, before losing his front wing after making contact with the rear of Colapinto.
The one driver who had an even worse start than Hamilton was hometown hero Gabriel Bortoleto, who was hit by Stroll and went into the barrier, ending his race prematurely and bringing out the safety car.
More chaos would ensue the moment that green flag running resumed. Norris left the restart late, which Piastri would time very well, and would head into turn 1 three wide with Antonelli and Leclerc. With very minimal room on the inside, Piastri would hit Antonelli, who would in turn hit Leclerc and take him out of the race, Ferrari’s Sunday going from bad to worse. The incident would bring out a Virtual Safety Car.
Verstappen would have to put during the VSC, having picked up a slow puncture doing the lap of green flag running.
Piastri would now find himself in second place after the incident, and while he was very close at the point of the Virtual Safety Car ending, he would quickly fall outside of DRS range.
Compounding his struggles, Piastri would go on to receive a 10 second penalty for the incident with Antonelli and Leclerc.
Verstappen was making plenty of moves through the field as he looks to salvage something from this weekend, having already made it into the points paying positions by lap 18.
His charge would continue with phenomenal pace, and thanks to some good overtakes and early pit stops he would climb to 4th by lap 22, though he would need to put once more before the end of the race.
Lando Norris would build a tidy 7 second gap to Oscar Piastri by the time of his pit stop, and despite the quick stop he would come out just behind Verstappen, the two now having made the same number of pit stops.
Norris’ time behind Verstappen was short lived, making a simple move around the outside of the start finish straight on lap 33.
Verstappen would come into the pits for the second time just a couple of laps later, and would fall back down to 12th place, a lot of work still to do to return to the sharp end of the grid.
Piastri would come in to put and serve his penalty on lap 38, having gone onto a set of soft tyres, but having some work to do after falling to 8th, behind Verstappen who was now back into 5th.
Also putting on lap 38 was Lewis Hamilton, who came in to retire the car, having struggled all race with a damaged floor.
Lando Norris would come in for his second stop of the race on lap 50, and would give the lead of the race to Max Verstappen, who was 3.5 seconds ahead of Piastri, who himself was now just under 5 seconds ahead of Norris, though not for long, as he would pit one lap later.
Red Bull were not confident that Verstappen would maintain his lead for the rest of the race, with Norris closing pretty quickly, so Verstappen would box for a third time on lap 54, now just under 15 seconds behind Norris with 17 laps to go.
It took a while for Verstappen to make another move, but he would finally climb back up to third place after overtaking Russell around the outside of turn 1 on lap 63, and would now be just 2.5 seconds behind Antonelli in second place.
Verstappen would stay within DRS range of Antonelli throughout the dying laps if the race, but it was clear that the soft tyres were far beyond their best, and he was ultimately unable to retake second place.
Lando Norris would continue to extend his lead at the end of the race after taking victory, leaving Sao Paulo with a 24 point lead over Piastri and a 49 point gap over Verstappen with just three race weekends remaining.
The next race is the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will take place at 4am GMT on Sunday, November 21.
