Norris and Piastri disqualified from Las Vegas GP

Lando Norris and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix for technical infringements.

The skid blocks on both cars were found after the race to be less than the minimum depth allowed in the rules.

Norris, who finished second to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, is now 24 points ahead of both the Dutchman and Piastri going into the penultimate race of the season in Qatar next weekend.

The Briton, 26, will still win the drivers’ title in Qatar with a round to spare if he earns two more points than both Verstappen and Piastri over the course of the weekend.

There are a maximum of 58 points available in the final two grands prix with Qatar being a sprint event.

After Qatar, the final race follows in Abu Dhabi on 7 December.

Verstappen has won the past four drivers’ championships, while Norris and Piastri are both seeking their first.

Norris’ disqualification lifts Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli into second and third respectively in Vegas.

Australian Piastri had finished fourth.

Norris said: “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 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.”

The skid block is mandated in the regulations to prevent the cars from running too low.

The lower an F1 car runs, the quicker it will generally be.

The same fate befell Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton after the Chinese Grand Prix in March.

Hamilton was also disqualified from the 2023 US Grand Prix for the same reason when he was at Mercedes, along with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

And in Belgium last year, Russell was disqualified for being underweight, but Mercedes said unexpected excessive skid wear was one of the reasons.

McLaren said in a statement that the cars had been unexpectedly suffering from an aerodynamic phenomenon known as porpoising. This is where a disruption to the underbody airflow sets up a high-frequency bouncing, “which led to excessive contact with the ground”.

The team added: “We are investigating the reasons for this behaviour of the car, including the effect of accidental damage sustained by both cars, which we found after the race, and that led to an increase of movement of the floor.

“As [governing body] the FIA noted, the breach was unintentional, there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed.”

Had the result stood as the cars finished the race, Norris would have had a 30-point lead over Piastri and 42 over Verstappen.

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was “not here not to take risks” as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen.

But after an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman’s attack on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner.

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris also lost second place to Russell.

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race.

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out.

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10.

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres.

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on lap 34.

Norris asked his engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second or attack.

He was told to “go and get Max” but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to repel Norris’ attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended significantly as the McLaren began to suffer what at the time the team described as “a technical issue”.

Norris was told to back off, an attempt to reduce the wear on the skid blocks by ‘lifting and coasting’ at the end of the straights.

This is where a driver backs off the throttle earlier than if he was pushing flat-out, coasting for a while and then braking.

It is a common technique for saving fuel. In this case, lifting early reduces top speed, which reduces downforce, so the car does not run as low for as long.

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver’s sixth win of the season – only one behind both of the McLaren drivers – was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, even if he requires Norris to have more problems to overtake him.

“It’s still a big gap. We always try and maximise everything we’ve got,” Verstappen said after his win, but before the news of the disqualifications came through.

“In upcoming weekends we will try and win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I’m very proud of everyone.”

Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a broken front wing.

He trailed Lawson’s team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip, but also lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period.

The Australian ended up behind Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on replays.

However, Piastri’s disqualification elevated the 19-year-old to third, the second consecutive race he has finished in a podium position.

Before he was disqualified, Piastri was asked about his approach to the final two races and told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if something happens.”

Leclerc moves up to fourth, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli’s penalty, with Carlos Sainz fifth, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic performance to qualify third in the wet.

Hadjar took sixth ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton.

The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap, and continued to move forwards.

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was able to use his electric start to score points after the worst qualifying session of his career.

The Haas drivers of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman move up to the final points-scoring positions, in ninth and 10th.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2. George Russell (Mercedes)

3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

5. Carlos Sainz (Williams)

6. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)

7. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)

8. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

9. Esteban Ocon (Haas)

10. Ollie Bearman (Haas)

From Las Vegas, Formula 1 has less than a week to get to the Middle East for the Qatar Grand Prix, where extra points are on offer because it is a sprint event. That takes place from 28-30 November before the season closes in Abu Dhabi, from 5-7 December.