Rain Reigns, Championship Changeover, and more as the Championship comes to a head at Interlagos for the Sao Paolo Grand Prix

What happened at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix?

After what has happened for the past couple of months, the race at Mexico was definitely a surprise. McLaren FINALLY broke through to claim their first win since Oscar Piastri took the checkered flag in August during the Dutch Grand Prix. It was also Lando Norris's first victory since Hungary in the first week of August. However, Lando's result was far from being the most impactful of the weekend.

Before we get to the rest of the results from Mexico City, I want to go over my predictions. On my hot takes, I went 0 for 5, so it obviously wasn't my best weekend. However, I was very close on a couple of them. I predicted Alex Albon to beat his teammate and return to the points, and he was able to defeat Carlos Sainz but couldn't make it to tenth. I also forecasted a bad weekend for Oscar Piastri, and he finished fifth. Unfortunately, I said he would finish outside of the top five. My other three predictions weren't close. Verstappen didn't win by over ten seconds (in fact, he didn't win at all), Racing Bulls couldn't even get a car within a lap of Lando Norris, and we surprisingly still have no announcements regarding Red Bull, Racing Bulls, or Alpine seats.

For me, the second-most exciting news comes in the drivers' championship. Lando Norris retook the lead from his teammate for the first time since April, surpassing Piastri by only a single point. With four rounds to go, Norris sits on 357, and Piastri sits on 356. Even with an underwhelming weekend, Max Verstappen managed to again gain on the Papayas for the fifth straight weekend. The gap between Verstappen and Norris is only 36 points, and 33 points are up for grabs this weekend, meaning if Verstappen wins both events and the McLarens fail to score, first-place Norris will only be ahead of third-place Verstappen by three points with three races left. Talk about exciting!

In other news, OLLIE BEARMAN P4. Yes, you heard that right. Rookie Ollie Bearman, in a Haas, a car ninth in the championship without a podium in ten seasons of existence, almost stood on the podium. The Brit capitalized on a chaotic race start to move up to P6 before overtaking Russell and Antonelli at the same time. Sitting in P5, he went wheel to wheel with his idol Max Verstappen and came out on top to take P4. Above Bearman, Hamilton received a 10-second penalty for cutting a corner on the opening lap, leaving Bearman in P3. However, a successful gamble by Red Bull took Haas's maiden podium away as Ollie finished P4 behind Norris, Leclerc, and Verstappen.

Without further ado, let's get into our predictions.

Podium Predictions

Here are my predictions for the podium finishers at the 2025 Sao Paolo Grand Prix:

Sao Paolo Grand Prix Sprint

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

   
   

2. Lando Norris (McLaren)

   
   

3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

Sao Paolo Grand Prix

1. Lando Norris (McLaren)

   
   

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

   
   

3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

Five Spicy Hot Takes

Now, let’s spice things up with some bold hot takes for the Sao Paolo Grand Prix, rated from 1 to 5 spicy pepper emojis:

1. 🌶️ - Verstappen will win the Sprint. What? Verstappen winning a sprint? Couldn't be...

   
   

2. 🌶️🌶️ - Verstappen closes in on a McLaren. Well, it has happened five straight weekends, but it seems like Lando is figuring it out. However, Oscar remains a mess, and Verstappen will hope to continue to catch up and finally get within a race win of one of the title challengers.

   
   

3. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Red Flag on Sunday. It's actually kind of hard to think of a full race at Interlagos without a red flag, but the rain is supposed to come during the sprint. I think there will be a big crash and red flag that forces a standing restart.

   
   

4. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Someone loses their seat. Something has to happen. It has to happen.

   
   

5. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - An excelent weekend for Haas. Bearman's on a roll and should be able to score, and Ocon finished on the podium last year with Alpine. Yeah, he took that piece of garbage to the podium.