McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix after both their cars were found not to comply with technical regulations.
Post-race, the rearmost skid wear on both McLaren MCL39 machines was found to be below the minimum 9mm thickness by technical delegates on inspection.
The matter was referred to the stewards, who subsequently disqualified both cars from the official result, with Norris having finished second and Piastri fourth.
As a result, race winner Max Verstappen has made a significant gain with regards to the 2025 Drivers’ Championship, as the Red Bull man now sits level on points with Oscar Piastri on 366. Lando Norris is 24 points ahead on 390 at the top of the standings with just two rounds of the season to go.
Confirming the disqualifications of the McLaren pair, the stewards’ document stated that the skid blocks on both cars were “measured and found to be below the minimum thickness of 9mm specified under Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations.”
It continued: “The rear skids were re-measured in the presence of the Stewards and the three McLaren representatives, and those measurements confirmed that the skids did not comply with the regulations. The relevant measurements were even lower than those measured originally by the Technical Delegate.”
It was also confirmed that McLaren had argued “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, and shortened practice sessions.”
While the stewards dismissed this, they added “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”.
McLaren are not the first team to fall foul of skid block infringements this season, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg also disqualified from the Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix respectively for similar transgressions.
With two Grands Prix and one Sprint remaining, there are 58 points on offer over the next two weekends to determine the outcome of the 2025 title.
Norris had started on pole for the 50-lap race in Las Vegas and aggressively moved over on Verstappen off the line before running wide at Turn 1 and slipping to third.
Eventually recovering to second, Norris dropped back drastically in the final laps as he was told to lift and coast by his team over a possible fuel concern.
“I don’t know what the issues were. The team just told me there were some problems and they were telling me to back off. So that’s something I’ll go and speak to them about in a bit,” said Norris post-race and prior to the disqualification.
Piastri, meanwhile, had recovered from dropping to P7 on the opening lap after contact with Liam Lawson into Turn 1, finishing fifth on-the-road but initially moving up a position as Kimi Antonelli was handed a five-second penalty for a false start.
“I think first lap was eventful to say the least and then a couple of mistakes after that which didn’t help,” said Piastri post-race prior to the stewards’ decision.
“The team did a really good job in getting our race back on track with strategy, so that was probably the highlight of the race.
“Got stuck behind Kimi, got close on one lap and I lost all grip when I tried to get alongside and I couldn’t get close enough again. That made life pretty tough but a bit of a feeling of more on the table.”
By F1
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