2024 São Paulo Grand Prix

2024 São Paulo Grand Prix
Race 21 of 24 in the 2024 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Layout of the Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Race details
Date	3 November 2024
Official name	Formula 1 Lenovo Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
Location	Autódromo José Carlos Pace São Paulo, Brazil
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.309 km (2.677 miles)
Scheduled distance	71 laps, 305.879 km (190.064 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:23.405

The 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Lenovo Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024) is a Formula One motor race scheduled to be held on 3 November 2024 at the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the twenty-first round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship and the fifth Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the sprint format.

Oscar Piastri of McLaren took pole position for the sprint event, and then ceded position to his teammate Lando Norris in the closing laps of the sprint. Norris won his first sprint race ahead of Piastri and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing initially finished third, but was later penalised for a virtual safety car infringement, ending up fourth. Norris took pole position for the main race in a qualifying session disrupted by five red flags, ahead of George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda of RB, who qualified in a career-best third.

Background

The event will be held at the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo for the 41st time in the circuit's history, having previously held thirty-seven editions of the Brazilian Grand Prix, across the weekend of 1–3 November. The Grand Prix will be the twenty-first round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship and the fourth held under the name of the São Paulo Grand Prix, having previously been titled the Brazilian Grand Prix. It will also be the fifth of six Grands Prix in the season to utilise the sprint format and the fourth time overall that the São Paulo Grand Prix has featured it.

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen leads the Drivers' Championship with 362 points, 47 points ahead of Lando Norris in second, and 71 ahead of Charles Leclerc in third. McLaren, holding 566 points, enters this round as the leader of the Constructors' Championship from Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, who are second and third with 537 and 512 points, respectively.

Entrants

See also: 2024 Formula One World Championship § Entries

The drivers and teams are the same as the season entry list with two exceptions: Franco Colapinto, who replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, and Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at RB from the United States Grand Prix. Reserve driver Oliver Bearman replaced Kevin Magnussen at Haas for the free practice and sprint sessions as Magnussen felt unwell. This was later expanded to the rest of the weekend following sprint qualifying.

Tyre choices

Further information: Formula One tyres

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (the softest three in their range) designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at the event.

Practice

The only free practice session was held on 1 November 2024, at 11:30 local time (UTC−3), and was topped by Lando Norris of McLaren ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Oliver Bearman of Haas.

Sprint qualifying

Sprint qualifying was held on 1 November 2024, at 15:30 local time (UTC−3), and determined the starting grid order for the sprint.

Sprint qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Sprint grid
				SQ1	SQ2	SQ3
1	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1:10.265	1:09.239	1:08.899	1
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:09.477	1:09.063	1:08.928	2
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:10.388	1:09.248	1:09.153	3
4	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:10.409	1:09.489	1:09.219	4
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:10.503	1:09.500	1:09.257	5
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:10.479	1:09.683	1:09.443	6
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1:10.630	1:09.610	1:09.622	7
8	30	Liam Lawson	RB-Honda RBPT	1:10.576	1:09.827	1:09.941	8
9	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:10.366	1:09.844	1:10.078	9
10	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	1:10.442	1:09.629	No time	10
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:10.625	1:09.941	N/A	11
12	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1:10.466	1:09.964	N/A	12
13	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:10.392	1:10.024	N/A	13
14	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	1:10.470	1:10.275	N/A	14
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	1:10.861	1:10.595	N/A	15
16	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:10.978	N/A	N/A	PL1
17	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:11.052	N/A	N/A	16
18	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1:11.121	N/A	N/A	17
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:11:280	N/A	N/A	PL1
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	1:12.978	N/A	N/A	PL1
107% time: 1:14.340
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu qualified 16th, 19th and 20th, respectively, but were required to start the sprint from the pit lane as their cars were modified under parc fermé conditions.

Sprint

The sprint was held on 2 November 2024, at 11:00 local time (UTC−3), and was run for 24 laps.

Sprint report

The sprint was held in cloudy conditions, facilitating the usage of slick tyres. Sprint polesitter Oscar Piastri led the majority of the race, but ceded position to Lando Norris to allow his teammate to maximise his points for his championship fight. Both drivers were being trailed by Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing, who had already dispatched of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. On lap 19, a double-waved yellow flag was observed due to Nico Hülkenberg's smoking Haas, who had a mechanical problem with three laps to go, so the McLaren pit wall ordered the drivers to swap positions on lap 22 should the race end under the safety car; McLaren initially planned for the two drivers to swap late in the race, and Piastri was willing to swap positions to aid his teammate. A late virtual safety car was called out shortly after the two drivers swapped positions and after Hülkenberg had vacated his car, and ended on the dying moments of the final lap. Other than Hülkenberg's mechanical failure, there were no major incidents on track. Norris won his first sprint race event ahead of Piastri and Verstappen, who finished third on track, but the latter was placed under investigation following the sprint for a virtual safety car infringement. Verstappen was demoted to fourth after being given a five-second time penalty, and Leclerc inherited third in his place.

Sprint classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	24	29:46.045	2	8
2	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	24	+0.593	1	7
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	24	+5.656	3	6
4	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	24	+6.4971	4	5
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	24	+7.224	5	4
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	24	+12.475	6	3
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	24	+18.161	7	2
8	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	24	+18.717	13	1
9	30	Liam Lawson	RB-Honda RBPT	24	+20.773	8
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	24	+24.606	9
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	24	+29.764	11
12	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	24	+33.233	14
13	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	24	+34.128	16
14	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	24	+35.507	10
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	24	+41.374	17
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	24	+43.231	15
17	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	24	+54.139	PL
18	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	24	+56.537	PL
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	24	+57.983	PL
Ret	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	19	Gearbox	12
Fastest lap: Sergio Pérez (Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT) – 1:11.678 (lap 24)
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Max Verstappen finished third on track, but received a post-sprint five-second time penalty for a virtual safety car infringement.

Qualifying

Qualifying was scheduled to be held on 2 November 2024, at 15:00 local time (UTC−3), but was postponed to the following day, at 7:30 local time, due to adverse weather conditions. The session determined the starting grid order for the main race.

Qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:30.944	1:24.844	1:23.405
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:29.121	1:26.307	1:23.578
3	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1:29.172	1:26.464	1:24.111
4	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:29.171	1:26.206	1:24.475
5	30	Liam Lawson	RB-Honda RBPT	1:30.758	1:25.654	1:24.484
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:29.839	1:26.097	1:24.525
7	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:29.072	1:25.889	1:24.657	—
8	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1:30.114	1:25.035	1:28.998
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:30.207	1:25.035	1:28.998
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:30.580	1:26.334	No time
11	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	1:30.633	1:26.472	N/A
12	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:28.522	1:27.771	N/A	1
13	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:30.035	1:29.406	N/A
14	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:30.303	1:29.406	N/A
15	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1:29.420	1:29.614	N/A
16	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.150	N/A	N/A
17	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	1:31.229	N/A	N/A
18	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.270	N/A	N/A
19	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1:31.623	N/A	N/A
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	1:32.263	N/A	N/A
107% time: 1:34.7182
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Max Verstappen received a five-place grid penalty for a sixth internal combustion engine.
• ^2 – As qualifying was held on a wet track, the 107% rule was not in force.

Race

The race was scheduled to be held on 3 November 2024, at 14:00 local time (UTC−3), but was moved to 12:30 local time as the qualifying session was postponed to race day due to adverse weather conditions. The race is scheduled to run for 71 laps.