Lando Norris (Sprint P2, GP P2, Fastest Lap, 26 pts): 9.5/10
Did Lando Norris come into the weekend predicting that Sao Paulo wasn't McLaren's sort of track and they would struggle to do well? He usually does, after all, and you might even have fallen for the flannel after practice where both McLaren drivers were a long way adrift at the bottom of the timesheets. The MCL60 was much quicker in qualifying trim but the team mistimed his final Q3 lap: Norris was caught out by the weather and yellow flags, and finished a disappointing seventh. He said he felt the McLaren had had the potential to take pole, and then proved for all to see in the Showdown. However, it still wasn't enough to beat the dominant Max Verstappen in the Sprint. His compromised qualifying meant he looked unlikely to have a second chance on Sunday, but a brilliant start saw him fly straight into second place and he was ready to have a second bite at Verstappen at the restart. He tried his best but the Red Bull is simply in another league at the moment; as Norris said, "This result [second] is the best possible, to be frank" against Red Bull right now.
Max Verstappen (Sprint P1, GP P1, Pole, 33 pts): 9.5/10
It's been a gruelling triple-header for everyone concerned, so it's perhaps not all that surprising that Red Bull sounded a little weary when Max Verstappen crossed the line in first place in the Sprint race, somewhat off-handedly referring to it as a good way of collecting data for Sunday's main event. And they were barely any more enthusiastic when Verstappen duly went on to pick up his 17th win of the season 24 hours later. As far as the team is concerned, collecting the winner's trophy is now as routine as you or I going to the stationery cupboard for a new pack of Post-Its. But none of that should take away from the fact of another peerless performance by Verstappen this weekend, from timing his final qualifying run to ensure he got the best of Friday's wild weather conditions to sweeping past Lando Norris for the lead in the Sprint. He was similarly adept at the start and restart of the Grand Prix. There were only two wrinkles to the weekend: getting pipped to pole by Norris in the Shootout in the first place; and then allowing Norris to get a little too close in the GP forcing Verstappen to knuckle down to ward off a feisty attack from the McLaren and pull out of DRS range. Once that was done it was plain sailing of course, but had been a rare if minor wobble from the world champion.
