The Sao Paulo Grand Prix offered Lando Norris a prime opportunity to make a serious dent in Max Verstappen's 44-point championship lead, especially with Norris starting from pole position and Verstappen back in 17th. However, the McLaren driver faced a series of unfortunate timing and other issues, ultimately finishing the race in P6.

At the start, Norris lost the lead to George Russell but remained close to the Mercedes in the opening laps. Both drivers soon encountered bad luck when they pitted just before the end of a Virtual Safety Car period.

Moments later, on Lap 32, a crash involving Franco Colapinto brought out a red flag, allowing drivers who hadn’t yet pitted—like Esteban Ocon, Max Verstappen, and Pierre Gasly—to change their tyres without a pit stop.

This reshuffle helped mainly Verstappen, who had worked his way up from P17. The Dutchman capitalized on the opportunity, taking control of the race after the restart and ultimately claiming victory, widening his championship lead over Norris to 62 points.

Reflecting on the disappointing race outcome, Norris mentioned that the free pitstop under the red flag, which some drivers received, played a crutial role.

“Yeah, you can change the tyres under the red flag, that’s what the others did. Just unlucky. Unfortunate, sometimes it just goes your way, so nothing we did wrong,” he told F1 TV.

“I don’t care what people say, staying out was not the right thing to do, it shouldn’t have been red-flagged but obviously that was the crash in the end which caused the red. That’s life sometimes – you take a gamble, that has paid off for them. It’s not talent, it’s just luck. [We were] a bit unlucky, that’s all.”

He also acknowledged his own mistakes but believes that his bad luck with the pit stop would keep him from making it to the podium anyways.

“Yeah, I still made a couple of mistakes in the end.

“I had cars on my left and my right, I locked the rears, I went off, I lost two positions. A little bit unfortunate there, just my own fault, so not a perfect race for me.

“But I think no matter what, fourth was the best anyone could do today of the people who boxed and didn’t get lucky, and otherwise [we’ll] just keep our heads down.”

To add to Norris’ frustration, he now faces a post-race investigation for a potential start procedure infringement, as he set off on an extra formation lap instead of waiting on the grid after an aborted start.