Lando Norris won a wet Sao Paulo Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday, beating Max Verstappen home by 14.6 seconds, and fourth and fifth place for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli gave Mercedes the 2026 constructors’ championship with three rounds to spare. Our original report has the full story of the race: Norris losing the start, Antonelli’s spin handing the lead back, and Verstappen climbing from 21st on the grid to finish second.
The title is Mercedes’ ninth, its first since 2021, and it completes a championship double a week after Antonelli sealed the drivers’ crown in Mexico City. The day-after layer is what the win looks like on Monday: a team principal who would not celebrate, a settled place in the all-time standings, and a fight for second in the drivers’ championship that is now the last title race left this season.
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Watch the official Formula 1 race highlights above: a wet Interlagos afternoon that both Mercedes drivers spun in, and that still ended with the team’s title sealed.
Wolff Says The Tough Years Built This Mercedes Constructors’ Championship
Toto Wolff’s Monday verdict, in the Press Association report of his reaction, was that the barren years made the comeback. “The thing is, when you are in these difficult moments, like we all are sometimes in our lives, it’s not that easy to keep going,” he said. “Because looking back in retrospect, you’re saying ‘we needed these tough moments in order to grow as people or to grow as an organisation’. But when you’re down, that’s quite difficult to feel.”
“So it feels really good, sealing those two titles. Not many sports teams have done that after a consecutive run of championships, then a difficult spell and then coming back.” The nine titles draw Mercedes level with Williams in third place on the all-time constructors’ list; only McLaren, with 10, and Ferrari, with 16, have more, as Sky Sports’ Monday report sets out. For Wolff himself it is a ninth constructors’ title as a team principal, matching the record Frank Williams set. He pointed past the drivers to the factories at Brackley and Brixworth: “There are not two superstars, the drivers, but there are 2,500 superstars, all of them delivering a great job.”
The Boss, Champion, once again for a record-equalling ninth time 💪 pic.twitter.com/gYYqguswqa
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 8, 2026
Mercedes marked the ninth title on X on Sunday night, and the factory celebration followed from the same account: “It’s party time back at the factory. We couldn’t have done it without you all.”
Russell Moves Back To Third In The Fight For Second
The one championship fight still alive is second place in the drivers’ standings. Russell’s fourth place, recovered after a spin at the pit lane exit, returned him to third in the standings, now 17 points behind Verstappen in second, per the Press Association report. Wolff made Russell the day’s story inside the team: “It’s George’s championship today, it’s the constructors’ championship and he’s part of the team and I’m really happy that he can cherish this moment, because we owe it to him. Now we have three races to go, we’re going to go full blast, and he will recover, I have no doubt about that.”
Russell, who had been furious on Saturday when the team aborted his final qualifying lap, took the longer view on Monday: “We achieved what we came here to do and won the Constructors’ Championship. We’ve had four difficult years and the whole organisation put so much work into getting us back into this position. When I joined Mercedes in 2022, we hoped we’d be fighting for championships regularly, so to have gone through that journey and now get back to the top is something we should all be incredibly proud of.” Antonelli, fifth after his own spin, said the team “deserves” the title: “They have done an incredible year and it’s an amazing group of people, who push every day to do their best and give us the best opportunity to fight for wins and championships.”
The grid’s own words are in Formula 1’s official Drivers React video above, filmed as Norris picked up his third win of the season and Mercedes secured the championship.
Already Looking At Las Vegas, And At 2027
Wolff was not even waiting for Monday to move on. Speaking to F1 TV after the race, he was already dissecting the afternoon rather than celebrating it: “I’m not celebrating! No, I’m fully on it already. My team says to me that I’m miserable because I never get to celebrate these moments. I’m just thinking, ‘What went wrong in this race? Why have we underperformed? And what can we do for Las Vegas and next year?’”
Las Vegas is next, from November 20 to 22, with Qatar and Abu Dhabi closing the season. What it means from here: both championships are settled, Mercedes’ return from four hard years is the story of the 2026 season, and the only prize left on the table is second in the drivers’ championship, where Verstappen leads Russell by 17 points with three races to run.
