F1 Las Vegas: Verstappen wins, title chase blown wide open as Piastri and Norris disqualified
The world title race has been blown open after championship leader Lando Norris and rival Oscar Piastri were sensationally disqualified from the Las Vegas GP.
Oscar Piastri’s diminishing world championship hopes have been dealt a huge double blow after both he and his McLaren team mate Lando Norris were sensationally disqualified from Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
A routine inspection by Formula One officials immediately after the race found that both McLaren cars failed to meet the sport’s technical requirements because their rear skid blocks were below the minimum 9mm thickness.
Piastri had finished the race in fourth position while Norris crossed the line second behind Max Verstappen but their results were cancelled after the technical breach was discovered.
“Disappointing to come away from this weekend with no points after an unfortunate disqualification due to skid wear,” Piastri said in a McLaren team statement.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE FIA’S FULL STATEMENT AGAINST PIASTRI
“With how close the grid is, we’re always looking at where we can gain performance, and we didn’t get it right this time.”
McLaren team representatives argued that there were some mitigating circumstances for the breach and while FIA investigators agreed the team did not intentionally break the rules, the disqualifications stood.
“Unfortunately there was no provision in the regulations or in precedent for any penalty other than the usual penalty (i.e. disqualification),” the FIA said in a statement.
“Notwithstanding the submission by the team that there was potentially accidental damage that may have led to movement of the floor which could have caused additional wear, the Stewards do not consider this sufficient to mitigate the penalty.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella apologised for the rule breach.
“As the FIA noted, the breach was unintentional, there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed,” he said.
“We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend. As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much.”
Skid blocks are heavily regulated to prevent cars from running too low. The lower a car is the faster it moves so any breaches provide an unfair advantage and typically result in automatic disqualification.
It is not unusual for cars to be disqualified over technical infringements. Already this season, two other drivers, Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton, were disqualified for the same offence.
The disqualifications of the two McLarens however will have a dramatic and instant bearing on the championship race.
Had the original results stood, Norris would have been 30 points ahead of Piastri and 42 in front of Verstappen with a maximum of 58 available remaining from the last two rounds in the Middle East.
But with the disqualifications, Norris’ lead was trimmed to 24, over both Piastri and Verstappen, who are now on equal points. Piastri is currently second on a countback because he has more races this season.
Norris still remains in a strong position to claim his first Formula One world title but his margin for error has been reduced.
He can still clinch the championship in Qatar next weekend if he finishes ahead of both Verstappen and Norris. If not, the title will come down to the final round in Abu Dhabi.
While Piastri still has a shot at the title, his hopes appear to be quickly fading unless he can somehow snap out of his extended form slump.
The Australian had led the championship standings by 34 points just 12 weeks ago but he has fallen behind after failing to make the podium in each of the last six rounds, partly due to a shocking run of bad luck.
Even on Sunday, his prospects of a strong finish were ruined when he was sideswiped at the start by New Zealand’s Liam Lawson, dropping him back to seventh. He did well to recover and finish fourth but that’s of little consolation in the big scheme of things.
“There’s been things out of my control that haven’t gone well recently, but there’s also been things in my control that haven’t gone well. That race was a combination of both, so there’s things I need to tidy up,” Piastri said.
“Obviously now I’m in a position where I can’t just win it by winning races.
“What I can do is put myself in the best position to capitalise if something does happen. For my own pride, ego and opportunities, I want to win the next two races. If things go my way, great; if they don’t, it is what it is.”
Verstappen is finishing the season in a rush. He registered his sixth win of the year and the 69th of his career in emphatic fashion but was reluctant to talk up his title chances before news of the disqualifications came through.
“It’s still a big gap but we always just try to maximise everything that we’ve got and this weekend that was first,” he said.
“In the upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up.”
Norris said he wasn’t allowing himself to think about winning the title because he needed to focus on each race.
“It’s frustrating to lose so many points. As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right,” he said.
“Nothing I can do will change that now, instead full focus switches to Qatar, where we’ll aim to go out and deliver the best possible performance in every session.”
Relive the action from Las Vegas from our live blog below.
Originally published as F1 Las Vegas: Verstappen wins, title chase blown wide open as Piastri and Norris disqualified
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