Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri disqualified in nightmare Las Vegas GP for McClaren
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix after both McLaren cars were found to be in breach of the technical regulations during post-race checks
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix due to a technical violation.
Both McLaren cars failed post-race technical inspections following the night race in Sin City, leading to Norris and Piastri being called before the stewards.
FIA scrutineers discovered that the thickness of the planks beneath the McLaren cars was less than 9mm, which is the required minimum by the end of a race. This indicated that the cars were operating with an illegally low ride height, resulting in both cars being disqualified from the final standings.
This is a significant development in the drivers’ championship race after Max Verstappen’s victory in the Las Vegas race. With Norris and Piastri’s results annulled, this win brings the Dutchman level on points with the Aussie and 24 behind championship leader Norris, with two rounds left.
Both McLaren drivers were called to the stewards for a hearing that started at 7.45am UK time. The hearing lasted over an hour and the decision was finally confirmed around 2am local time, more than four hours after the Grand Prix ended.
Norris had finished the race in second place, having started on pole but lost to Verstappen at the first corner.
The Brit attempted an aggressive defence against his Red Bull competitor but ended up overshooting the corner as a result, which dropped him behind both Verstappen and George Russell into third place, reports the Express.
He made short work of getting back ahead of the Mercedes but catching Verstappen proved impossible. Nonetheless, Norris believed he had widened the points gap between himself and team-mate Piastri in the championship going into the final two rounds of the year, but now faces having to fend off both the other McLaren and Verstappen’s Red Bull over the next couple of weekends.
Before discovering his disqualification, Norris had already been “pretty disappointed” with his performance in the race. He said: “We just weren’t quick enough, we didn’t have the pace. I messed up turn one, it was pretty pretty poor for me.
“I just braked too late, it was all on me. Pretty poor for myself, but even if I came out in P1 out of turn one, we were just not quick enough.
“Max has done a very good job and the Red Bull is very quick, so they deserve the win today. They were another league compared to us. A bit of a shame that we we didn’t have more pace – we’ve got to try to improve even more.
“I’m just pretty disappointed with today. I look forward to getting somewhere warm and to go play some golf, go play some padel for a few days, enjoy a few days off and then do everything we can to try to win in Qatar.”
