The Las Vegas Grand Prix took a sudden twist after both McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, were disqualified after post-race checks confirmed their cars had excessive skid-block wear.

This is illegal in F1 as it allows the car to run lower to the ground, thereby achieving an advantage.

Norris finished second in the race while teammate Piastri came in fourth place; however, those results have now gone down the drain as a result of the disqualifications, with team boss Andrea Stella apologising. Furthermore, Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen came first in Sin City and is now equal with Piastri with 366 points.

Norris is leading the standings with 390 points, with two more races left this year and the fight to determine the champion going down to the wire.

Both teammates felt disappointment for being disqualified and leaving Vegas with no points.

“It’s frustrating to lose so many points,” said Norris, who now holds a 24-point lead over both Piastri and Verstappen.

“As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right today.

“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.”

Piastri highlighted it was “disappointing” to leave Sin City empty-handed.

“We’re always looking at where we can gain performance, and we didn’t get it right this time,” he emphasised.

“We now need to reset, refocus and push to get the best points possible in the final two rounds.”

The team submitted to the race stewards that there were mitigating circumstances such as limited opportunity to test due to bad weather and shortened practice sessions, along with unexpected and additional porpoising at the race.

However, the FIA argued that, “unfortunately, there was no provision in the regulations or in precedent for any penalty other than the usual penalty” (i.e. disqualification).

“The FIA noted that it strongly held the view that the breach was unintentional and that there was not a deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations.”

Both drivers will now head to Qatar, eager to defend their championship points and finish on the podium and prevent Verstappen from gaining points and closing the gap further.

Featured Image: 2025 Japanese GP – Oscar Piastri. Image by  Liauzh   Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.