Lando Norris’s title hopes have been dealt a significant blow after a disastrous double disqualification for him and his McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri.
The ruling put Max Verstappen only 24 points off Norris after his nerveless win in Las Vegas.
Both McLaren cars failed post-race checks on their skid planks, which are measured in four sections. Norris’s right-hand side front was measured 0.12mm below the required 9mm, with his right-hand side rear 0.07mm below it.
Piastri’s left-hand side front was 0.04mm too thin, his right front 0.26mm too thin, and the right rear 0.1mm below the required thickness.
The skid plank sits underneath the car to prevent them from running too low to the ground. The lower the cars run to the ground, the better the performance usually is. The plank was added to the cars after Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994 to prevent them bottoming out as a safety risk.
Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this season for the same offence, although the margin of McLaren’s error was smaller.
The double disqualification has blown the championship wide open. Norris had finished second in the race, extending his lead to 30 points over Piastri, with Verstappen 42 behind. But Norris’s lead has now been cut to 24 points, with Verstappen and Piastri tied on 366 points behind him. Piastri remains second courtesy of having one more race win than Verstappen.
Two races of the season remain, with extra points on offer next weekend in Qatar, which is a sprint weekend. Norris can still win the title at the Lusail International Circuit if he earns two points more than Verstappen and Piastri over the course of the weekend.
The official disqualification of the two McLarens came at 1.44am local time, more than four hours after the race had ended. McLaren had defended their case to the stewards, arguing that a number of mitigating factors had contributed to their error.
The remaining racesQatar Grand Prix
Lusail International Circuit, Doha
November 28-30Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi
December 5-7
The stewards’ report said: “The Team argued that mitigating circumstances existed in that there was additional and unexpected porpoising at this event, limited opportunity to test due to the weather on Day 1 [Thursday], and shortened practice sessions. Further, the Team submitted that the degree of the breach was lower than prior breaches of this regulation in 2025.”
The stewards decided there was no provision in the regulations or precedent for any penalty other than the usual disqualification.
Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, apologised to both drivers for the impact the disqualification had on their title bids.
McLaren’s blunder gives Verstappen huge momentum going into the final two races
MARK THOMPSON/GETTY IMAGES
“During the race, both cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising not seen in the practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground,” he said. “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.
“The breach was unintentional. There was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed. 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. While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season.”
Verstappen is pursuing a fifth consecutive championship title
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Norris added: “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.”
Norris, who crossed the line in second, had been told to lift and coast in the closing laps and lost significant lap time for what initially appeared to be a fuel issue. Lifting off early means a reduction in downforce, which prevents as much wear on the plank. Piastri was given similar advice by his race engineer.
Norris had already lost out on victory after a poor race start. There was no question of what Verstappen would do; in Sin City, the Red Bull driver was going all in. The outsider in the title race, trying to keep those scant hopes alive, he had less to lose than Norris and got a good launch from second on the grid.
But Norris anticipated his rival’s attempts to take the inside line and aggressively blocked him off. It kept Verstappen behind him but only momentarily. Norris ran wide at turn one, and having ran off the racing line, dropped to third behind George Russell.
“I let Max have the win,” Norris joked. “I just braked too late, it was my f*** up! You’ve got to be punchy into turn one, I was just a bit too punchy. It was not my best performance out there.”
In typically over-the-top Vegas scenes, the top three finishers were driven to their post-race interviews outside the Bellagio fountains in a baby pink Lego Cadillac car, with Terry Crews, the American actor and comedian, driving them. In a surreal moment, David Coulthard introduced a Mickey Mouse-orchestrated fountain show.
Formula 1 may well be catering to its new, younger audience, but the headlines from this race were in the technical minutiae which remain as important as ever.
Piastri started fifth after a yellow flag thwarted his final flying lap attempt in qualifying, and was caught in the opening lap chaos, banging wheels with Liam Lawson.
Piastri makes contact with Lawson during another dismal weekend for the Australian
ALEX BIERENS DE HAAN/GETTY IMAGES
He had fought back to fourth over the line but had seemingly written off his own title chances before the disqualifications were announced, saying he would drive for his own “pride” and attempt to win the final two races.
Norris has lost only six points to his team-mate, but Verstappen has the momentum and the experience of such a crucial point of the season as he hunts his fifth consecutive world title.
Kimi Antonelli received a five-second penalty for a false start but drove a brilliant long stint on the hard tyre to salvage fifth for Mercedes, which was eventually upgraded to third. Those were crucial points — with Russell inheriting second — in Mercedes’ bid for second in the constructors’ standings.
Elsewhere, Doriane Pin, part of the Mercedes Junior team, claimed the F1 Academy title with a fifth-place finish in the final race of the season.