Lando Norris won the Brazilian Grand Prix Sprint but not as comfortably as he would have liked.

Lando Norris was left underwhelmed despite his Sprint race win in Sao Paulo (Image: Getty)

Lando Norris admitted Mercedes will be “a big threat” today despite holding off charging rookie Kimi Antonelli to win yesterday’s Sprint race. The championship leader started on pole and led throughout, extending his lead over Oscar Piastri to nine points after his McLaren team-mate crashed out in damp conditions.

Lando Norris admitted Mercedes will be “a big threat” today despite holding off charging rookie Kimi Antonelli to win yesterday’s Sprint race. The championship leader started on pole and led throughout, extending his lead over Oscar Piastri to nine points after his McLaren team-mate crashed out in damp conditions.

“The pace was good enough to win but not enough to do it in a comfortable manner. Mercedes were quick, their pace transferred [from qualifying to race trim] very well, so we need to see what we can do because they are going to be a big threat.”

George Russell was third behind his team-mate as Mercedes leapfrogged Ferrari into second place in the constructors’ championship. They are confident of putting more daylight between themselves and the Scuderia with even cooler conditions forecast for today’s main event.

Russell said: “We feel good – the temperatures are cool and we know that’s how we like it. Kimi did a great job to put Lando under a bit of pressure. P2 and P3 is a really good result and we need to try to do the same thing again.”

In the title race, Piastri’s slide continued when he put a tyre on a wet kerb while running in third, spinning off track and into the barrier. Bizarrely, he was one of three who crashed in separate incidents at the same corner and on the same lap, with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto also sliding off.

Piastri said: “I’ve just got to try to put this behind me. There’s a lot more points on offer tomorrow.” Team boss Andrea Stella backed the Aussie to bounce back, insisting: “It’s just an episode – Oscar has been fast this weekend so we look forward now to repairing the car and capitalising on the speed.”

Mercedes were very fast in cooler conditions during the Sprint race in Brazil (Image: Getty)

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both progressed to score points but neither Ferrari driver felt they can challenge at the front in today’s Grand Prix.

Leclerc said: “We have an issue on both cars and we are losing a lot of time on the straights. I’ll experiment with the set-up because at the moment we are not where we want to be and I don’t think it can be any worse.”

And Hamilton added: “We have problems with the balance of the car and our top speed is really slow, that’s why we can’t overtake. We need to see how we can tackle that.”