Mercedes clinches 2026 constructors' title as Verstappen storms from pit lane to podium in Brazil

Lando Norris won a rain-disrupted Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on Sunday, but the headline result of the weekend belonged to Mercedes, which clinched the 2026 Formula 1 constructors' championship, its first team title since 2021. Max Verstappen, starting from the back of the grid after an engine-related penalty, produced the drive of the day to finish second, 14.602 seconds behind Norris, ahead of a career-best podium for his Red Bull teammate, Isack Hadjar.

The race was run in mixed, deteriorating conditions, with rain falling at the start, easing in the middle laps and returning with roughly ten laps to go. Norris, who started from pole, was passed into the first corner by Kimi Antonelli before regaining the lead when Antonelli's Mercedes developed a suspension problem and spun at Turn 1. Verstappen, who started 21st, worked his way to second by roughly halfway and briefly led during the pit-stop sequence before Norris reclaimed the position and controlled the final, slippery laps, according to the official race classification published by Formula 1. George Russell also lost time with a spin at the pit exit, and Hamilton, who started near the back alongside Verstappen, worked through the field on a tire gamble before a late spin of his own cost him further ground.

With Antonelli's drivers' title already secured, the remaining points in that standings now carry little weight beyond positioning. Norris' win was his third of the season for McLaren, a team that was overtaken in the title race by Mercedes' late surge; Verstappen's recovery, meanwhile, was a reminder of what the Red Bull car can do on a given Sunday, in a season in which the team was never a serious factor in either championship.

What the result changed

Mercedes arrived at Interlagos leading Ferrari by 126 points in the constructors' standings and needed either a three-point swing in its favor or a last-place-or-worse finish for both Ferrari drivers to secure the title outright, a scenario Formula 1 laid out in its pre-race breakdown of the points permutations. George Russell finished fourth and Antonelli fifth for Mercedes, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton managed only eighth and ninth, enough to settle the title with three rounds still to run.

It is Mercedes' ninth constructors' championship, drawing the team level with Williams for third on the all-time list behind Ferrari and McLaren, and it ends a drought that stretched back to the team's run of eight consecutive titles from 2014 through 2021. The team's revival has been built around Antonelli, the 20-year-old Italian who had already wrapped up the 2026 drivers' title a week earlier at the Mexico City Grand Prix, where he finished third behind race winner Max Verstappen and runner-up Lewis Hamilton. That result made Antonelli the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history, at 20 years and 68 days old, surpassing the mark Sebastian Vettel set in 2010 by more than two years and making Antonelli the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, according to reporting on the Mexico City result.

A chaotic afternoon by the numbers

• Norris completed the 71-lap race in 1 hour, 35 minutes and 23.504 seconds, his third win of the 2026 season.
• Verstappen and Hamilton both started from the back of the field after power-unit penalties; Verstappen climbed 19 positions to finish second, while Hamilton finished ninth, a lap down.
• Leclerc was provisionally seventh but dropped to eighth after a post-race five-second penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson, a ruling the FIA published in its race-day infringement decision. Mercedes drivers Antonelli and Oliver Bearman of Haas each picked up separate five-second penalties for unsafe pit releases, neither of which changed their finishing positions.
• Valtteri Bottas did not start because of a cross-threaded wheel nut on his Cadillac, and Lance Stroll retired his Aston Martin after 30 laps with a battery problem. Rafael Câmara, filling in for Esteban Ocon at Haas, finished 20th on his home debut.

Who gained and who is still chasing

For Red Bull, the day doubled as rare, late-season validation: Verstappen's recovery drive and Hadjar's third-place finish, his best result since being promoted to the team's second car this year, lifted Red Bull to third in the constructors' standings, ahead of McLaren. Autosport's race report described Norris as coolly managing a treacherous final stint while the track dried and re-wetted around him, control that kept McLaren's win intact even as the team's own constructors' hopes had already slipped behind Mercedes' resurgence weeks earlier.

Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls finished seventh after Leclerc's penalty, continuing a strong run of results for the Red Bull-aligned junior team, while Nico Hulkenberg brought his Audi home tenth despite a ten-second penalty for a track-limits infringement that did not cost him the place. The grid also marked a milestone for Audi's works entry into Formula 1, a program still searching for the kind of results that would justify its investment in its debut season.

For Ferrari, the weekend confirmed what had looked likely for weeks: a season that began with hopes of ending Mercedes' title drought on the other side of the garage instead closed with neither a drivers' nor a constructors' crown, after Leclerc and Hamilton were unable to produce the one-two finish that would have kept the fight alive into Las Vegas. Hamilton, in his second season with the team, has yet to win a championship with Ferrari.

What comes next

Three races remain on the 2026 calendar, run as a closing triple-header: the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 21, the Qatar Grand Prix in Lusail on November 29, and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 6. With both championships now decided, those rounds will largely determine runner-up places and bragging rights, including the battle for second in the drivers' standings, where Verstappen currently sits well clear of Russell and Hamilton, and the fight between Red Bull and McLaren for the remaining places in the constructors' table. For Mercedes, the title secures a return to the top of the sport after a five-year wait and caps a season built around the sudden emergence of its youngest driver.