What Verstappens in Vegas … Oscar Piastri’s titles hopes buried in Nevada desert
What Verstappens in Vegas, stays in Vegas – Red Bull’s Mad Max took the chequered flag but the 4am race was a triumph for McLaren’s Lando Norris, who finished second ahead of Mercedes’s George Russell, and then a disconsolate Piastri, who stumbled away from the presentation ceremony near the Bellagio like he’d put his life savings on red and watched it come up black.
He wore the same expression as all the down-and-out stragglers heading home after an unfortunate evening on The Strip. That’s it? What happened?
It was a must, an absolute must, for Piastri to make ground on Norris, but he fell further behind. His increasingly perky English teammate leads the drivers’ championship by 30 points on 408 points to Piastri’s 378, and Verstappen, who’s surely doing too little too late, on 366 points as Formula One’s big travelling circus travels to Qatar and Abu Dhabi for back-to-back races to close the season. No more bets.
It’s the hope that kills you. “There’s not much to say,” Piastri said after a chaotic start cost him places. “I felt like I was one of the only people who actually braked to make the corner and I got barged out of the way. That’s fine. It is what it is.
“The rest of the race was eventful after that, as well. A few too many mistakes.
“From start to finish, it just felt like there were some tough moments through the race. Little lock-ups here and there.
“It’s probably not my favourite circuit of the year but plenty of tracks that aren’t my favourite have been good this year.
“I don’t think it’s anything to do with that. Just a pretty bad start, took a while to find the rhythm and just got stuck.”
Can he win Qatar to reinvigorate the hopes Vegas (gleefully) destroyed?
“Hopefully,” he said. “I’m just going to go into the next two weeks being the best prepared I can be. Have the best weekends I can. It’d be nice to get some good results on the board to finish the year. The championship picture is what it is. We’ll see what I can do.”
The championship picture is grim. Norris has a vice-like grip on the title. The death of a dream?
To the suggestion Piastri’s chances have been buried by the Las Vegas Strip, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says: “My view is that mathematics is what counts. Oscar needs to go into the final two races with the will to win them and take it from there.
“It’s still a very exciting and interesting finale of the season. Max, Lando and Oscar will go to the next race thinking ‘We need to win’.”
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My memories of Las Vegas are riding into town with hopes and dreams and a wallet full of cash before departing with a thousand regrets, moral predicaments, extreme exhaustion, empty pockets and a screaming headache. Most of which Oscar Piastri may relate to after his Formula One championship dream was chewed up and spat out by Sin City.