Why Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri Were Disqualified | 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix

We've got some breaking news here in the paddock as McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix and that means their Red Bull Championship rival Max Verstappen is now just 24 points off the championship lead. Let's get into what happened. McLaren was summoned to the stewards and it was found that the risk it blocks were underneath the nine millimetre threshold and that means a disqualification for both cars. Now Lando Norris had finished the race in second, Oscar Piastri fourth and that promoted both Mercedes onto the Now there is precedent for this. Earlier this year Lewis Hamilton was disqualified in China, Nico Hülkenberg was disqualified in Bahrain. Now McLaren went to the stewards and they put forward their case. They said there were mitigating circumstances as there was additional and unexpected porpoising at this event. They said there was limited opportunity to test because of the bad weather that we've had here in Las Vegas and they've also said there were some shortened practice sessions and that meant they couldn't get the long runs in and test kind of running different ride heights in the cars. Now the team also said there was a degree of breach that was lower than what has been in previous years. Now the FIA looked at this and they said unfortunately there is no provision in the regulations or precedent for any penalty other than the usual penalty which is disqualification. The FIA said they strongly believe it was unintentional and it was not in any way deliberate but there is no cause for them to give any other penalty than a disqualification. Now McLaren also said that there was potentially accidental damage that may have led to the movement of the floor which could have caused additional wear but the stewards said they do not consider this sufficient to mitigate the penalty and therefore the penalty stands. So what does this do for the race result? Well Max Verstappen initially won the race ahead of Lando Norris and George Russell. Now George Russell moves up to P2 and Kimi Antonelli is onto the podium so that's a double for Mercedes on that podium. For the championship it's got big implications. Lando Norris was going to leave the championship by 30 points leaving Las Vegas after that P2 but now that lead is down to 24 points. Oskar Piastri is still 24 points behind but interestingly Max Verstappen was going to be 42 points behind and now he also is only 24 points behind with two races to go. A sprint in Qatar, a Grand Prix in Qatar and a Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. Obviously a disqualification is never ideal but McLaren are still in a very strong position. Lando of course still leads the championship with 24 points and that's almost a race win. Oskar Piastri traditionally goes strongly in Qatar. He's always outperformed Lando there but what makes it intriguing is that Max Verstappen won that race last year and as I said he's only one race win away as he's fighting for fifth consecutive world championship. Not so long ago he was 104 points behind and way beyond an outsider. Now he is right in the thick of it but what we're looking forward to a three-way fight for the Drivers' World Championship.