Red Bull picked up a double points finish at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, but a penalty saw Max Verstappen denied a podium.

The original results of the 24-lap abbreviated sprint race at Interlagos saw Verstappen finish third and team-mate Sergio Perez classified eighth.

But around two hours after the race finished, Verstappen was handed a five second time penalty after he was deemed to have committed a virtual safety car infringement.

The penalty was applied for an incident that happened on the final lap. After two laps under VSC conditions following an on-track breakdown for the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, Verstappen was deemed to have exceeded his permitted delta time for VSC while trying to challenge the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

The applied penalty means Verstappen finished fourth, dropping back behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who had crossed the line within five seconds of Verstappen at the end of the race.

With Norris winning the sprint race, it means that he gains slightly on Verstappen in the standings for the Driver’s Championship with 4 full races and one sprint remaining in the 2024 season. Norris is 44 points clear of Verstappen ahead of the full Sao Paulo Grand Prix scheduled to take place tomorrow.

Perez meanwhile picked up one point after overtakes on Alex Albon and Liam Lawson, albeit at the second attempt in the case of the latter, helped him get up to eighth position. The position is the last points position in the sprint format, although Perez narrowly failed to get past Pierre Gasly in the Alpine in the position ahead.

It is as yet unknown what Verstappen or Perez’s starting positions will be for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after wet weather lead to the postponement of qualifying as planned.

Qualifying is now scheduled to take place on Sunday morning, with a start time to be announced in due course, as well as any contingency measures if expected additional rain causes more issues.