Verstappen wins in Las Vegas; McLaren handed double disqualification
LAS VEGAS — Max Verstappen took his second victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of championship leader Lando Norris to maintain his championship chances.
Norris claimed second place, but in a dramatic turn of events, he was later disqualified by the stewards, alongside his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, for illegal board wear.
The decision came five hours after the race ended and puts pressure on McLaren drivers’ championship hopes as Verstappen equals Piastri on points and Norris’s lead is reduced to 24 points.
There are a maximum of 58 points available with two grands prix remaining, including a sprint race at next week’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen won the Las Vegas race by almost 21 seconds as Norris encountered car problems late on. Norris denied Mercedes driver George Russell second place before the line, but the disqualification result means both Mercedes drivers have now been elevated to the podium.
Piastri finished a distant fourth as his streak of failures ahead of teammate Norris, dating back to his victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in late August, continued.
Verstappen seemed dead and buried coming out of the summer break, but he returned to contention with what will go down as one of F1’s great end-of-season charges. The Dutchman has now won four of the seven races since the break.
The Dutchman took control of Saturday evening’s event from the first lap of the race. Norris had started from pole position and crossed the track aggressively to keep the Red Bull driver and reigning four-time world champion behind him, but then ran deep into Turn 1.
This allowed Verstappen to pass Norris at the next corner and also allowed Russell to pass him for second place. Despite a brief period when Russell was within range of Verstappen’s DRS, his lead never looked threatened.
McLaren had looked confident of catching Verstappen in the closing laps, but a late car problem saw Norris fall back considerably in the final laps, but not enough for Russell to catch him.
Fifth starter Piastri might have been better placed to capitalize if he had gotten off to a better start; the Australian was lucky to escape a late race when he was hit by Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson at Turn 1.
At one point Piastri was seventh, but a cleverly timed pit stop and five-second penalty for Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli allowed Piastri to climb to fourth position at the end of the race, before his disqualification.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished sixth (now fourth) behind Antonelli. And although Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton fell from the back of the grid to 10th (now eighth), it was another bitterly disappointing weekend for the Scuderia when most predicted it would be its last opportunity to score a Grand Prix victory in 2025.
Williams driver Carlos Sainz finished seventh (now fifth), ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg.
Additional reporting by ESPN’s Nate Saunders in Las Vegas.
