Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen Hit With Grid Penalties as Interlagos Shakes Up the Title Fight

The starting grid for Sunday's São Paulo Grand Prix is going to look nothing like the one qualifying produces. Formula 1 confirmed on Saturday morning that three of the sport's biggest names will all be sent backwards before a wheel turns in anger, and the championship picture at Interlagos has been turned on its head before the cars have even lined up. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will each take a ten-place grid penalty after Ferrari fitted a new internal combustion engine to both of their cars, the first engine outside their season allocation. Max Verstappen's punishment is heavier still. Red Bull changed the engine, the turbocharger and the exhaust on his car, a combination worth thirty grid places, which means the four-time world champion will start Sunday's race from the very back of the field. Sergio Pérez, driving for the new Cadillac team, is in the same boat after taking a new engine, turbocharger and MGU-K. It is a remarkable pile-up of penalties, and it did not come out of nowhere. Ferrari endured what several reports described as their worst Friday of the season at Interlagos, the team looking like only the fourth-fastest outfit across both practice sessions. With the constructors' championship still to be decided — Mercedes can seal it this weekend if they outscore Ferrari by three points — the Scuderia made a cold calculation: take the pain now, at a track where overtaking is possible, rather than carry a tired engine into the final rounds. For Hamilton, the day only got worse once he was back on track. During final practice on Saturday morning, with the fresh engine already in the back of his car, he reported a vibration and strange engine braking over the radio, then smoke began to curl from the Ferrari. The smell, according to reports from the pit lane, was burning oil. Mechanics wheeled the car back into the garage, and Hamilton stepped out, his final practice effectively over before he had managed a proper qualifying simulation run. There is a certain history to all of this at Interlagos, and Hamilton knows it better than anyone. Back in 2021, driving for Mercedes, he took a five-place grid penalty at this same circuit for a fresh engine and still won the race, charging from tenth to first on Sunday after a disqualification had forced him to fight through the field the day before. That afternoon has passed into Formula 1 folklore, and it is the memory Ferrari will be clinging to on Sunday. Verstappen's situation is different but no less dramatic. Red Bull broke the curfew on Friday evening to complete the full power-unit change, a sign of how much work was involved, and the Dutchman now faces 71 laps of fighting through traffic at a circuit where he has produced some of his finest drives, including a famous wet-weather masterclass in 2024. George Russell, already confirmed on Friday with a five-place drop of his own, completes a strange weekend in which four drivers will qualify one place and start another. Qualifying takes place on Saturday afternoon, and that is where the strangeness really begins. The timesheets will tell one story and the grid will tell another, with Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen all sliding down the order from wherever they qualify. While the penalties were being confirmed, new world champion Kimi Antonelli was setting the pace in final practice, the 20-year-old looking entirely at home as the sport's new standard-bearer. Sunday at Interlagos rarely disappoints. This year, the fight through the field starts before the lights even go out.