Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri reflect on fighting F1 Las Vegas GP, before they were disqualified, as the Australian questions lack of penalty situation.
It ended in a good space for McLaren pair in F1 Las Vegas GP when Norris was second and Piastri in fourth. But then came the big slap of double disqualification due to skid wear on the rear plank. Both cars were found to be below the 9mm accepted mark, which led to double knockout.
It was bare minimum but they were off it still. While Norris still has the points lead by 24 points over Max Verstappen in the drivers’ tally, but the Dutchman has now matched his points to Piastri’s. Before the penalty, the Brit didn’t know the extent of the issue, if it was skid or fuel.
He was lifting and coasting from the get go. “I think there was just some issues with the car, the team were telling me on the radio,” said Norris. “So, yeah. Just had to back off a bit. I’m pretty thankful George was also having issues. Otherwise, today would have been even worse. So I’m not sure how close it was. I don’t know if the sensor was saying things it shouldn’t have been or what, or we just used more than expected or what it was.
“I don’t know the full extent. I need to go and see the team and understand more, to be honest. So it was more I was just annoyingly listening to what they were telling me to do, which was losing a lot of pace, and, yeah, certainly didn’t help in the chance to try and attack Max a bit more,” summed up Norris, who lost out at the start when he attempted to cut across Verstappen at Turn 1.
He missed his braking point and went wide, which allowed both the Dutchman and George Russell through him. It took him long to pass the Mercedes driver in the final stint when he attempted to catch Verstappen, but it was too late as he dropped from five seconds to 20s and it was mostly salvaging second – thankful to Russell, who also had his own issues.
“We just weren’t quick enough,” continued Norris. “We didn’t have the pace. I messed up Turn 1—it was pretty poor from me. I just braked too late. So yeah, it was all on me, pretty poor from myself. But even if I came out in P1 out of Turn 1, we were not quick enough. Same as Brazil. Max has done a very good job and the Red Bull is very quick. They deserve the win.
“They were in another league compared to us. So a bit of a shame that we didn’t have more pace, but we’ve got to try and improve a bit more. I was all out. We just weren’t quick enough. They were just much quicker than us today. Not miles, but we certainly had our issues, and that made the gap probably bigger than it was. But otherwise they were just quicker.
“Even if I came out of Turn 1 ahead, I don’t think we would have won the race today. So I still take P2 as a good result. I’m pretty happy because of it. But I’m not happy because it’s P2. Like Max says, it’s tough, it’s close, and I gave myself a good opportunity yesterday to try and win the race. Of course, I messed it up and made my life tougher into Turn 1. But even after that, we just weren’t quick enough.
“Even when I thought I kept the tyres in a better condition than the others, kind of brought them in nicer, I was pushing flat out, and Max was still pulling away. So it seems like lately we’ve been able to improve our quali pace, but our race pace has taken a bit of a hit. Even when you look at Brazil—our quali pace was very strong, but Max was still a little faster in the race.
“Similar this weekend—we were very, very good yesterday, like incredibly strong yesterday, but just not good enough today. So we’ll see what’s maybe changed over the last few weeks and what we can improve on for Qatar,” summed up Norris, who now will have to defend his lead from both Verstappen and Piastri. If not for the disqualification, it was still a healthy margin, but now both are within a race win.
He would have had his first chance to seal the title in Qatar, but now he will have to wait until Abu Dhabi unless something miraculous happens. “No, I’m just pretty disappointed,” said Norris. “So, no. I look forward to Qatar. I look forward to getting somewhere warm and, yeah, just go play some golf, go play some padel for a few days, enjoy a few days off, and do everything we can to try and win in Qatar.”
His teammate had a hard one as well. He initially lost to both the Visa Cash App RB drivers. In fact, he was hit by Liam Lawson into Turn 1, which wasn’t penalised. It somewhat irked the Australian, especially after being at the receiving end of decisions – most recently in Brazil. He said he can’t do much about it, but wait for Qatar to discuss in the drivers’ meeting.
“Ambitious, that’s for sure, but apparently okay,” said Piastri on Lap 1 move. “So obviously I think we’ll probably be talking about that one next week in our meeting. But yeah, that made things tough and a few more difficult moments in the first 10 laps. Obviously getting passed by Charles, which wasn’t ideal. I think our pace in clean air was actually very good, so at least that was positive.
“And, and the strategy was supreme or superb today. But just too many difficult moments in between. I don’t think there was any [damage]. I think it was wheel to wheel, from what it felt like. I was quite impressed I still had four wheels, to be honest. But I don’t think there was any damage after that. It just took a while to get into a rhythm at the start.
“And yeah, once I got some clean air, I felt like I got into a nice rhythm and, and the pace was good. But outside of that, it was a bit more difficult than I had hoped. I’m not even going to bother trying to compute it. It is what it is, I think. Again, we’ve got a meeting with the stewards next week to kind of give our feedback. Obviously the guidelines kind of came in place from the drivers.
“And I think for the large majority of incidents, it’s been very helpful. But clearly there’s some tweaking that needs to be done, because I think the balance and potentially people gaming the rules a little bit. There’s been a few incidents that I don’t think are really what we want to see in racing. So I’m sure we’ll discuss it next week, and be better as a sport moving forward,” summed Piastri.
The Australian’s luck since Baku has fallen into pieces. He has had everything going against which includes strange pace drop in Austin and Mexico. Even in Las Vegas, he had yellow flag on his fast lap which ruined his chances of a potential front row finish. He can only laugh about it as he states. “I mean, it is what it is,” said Piastri.
“Sometimes all you can do is laugh and try and find the silver lining in things again. I think the pace in clean air today was good. And there’s been things out of my control that haven’t gone well recently, but there’s also been things in my control that haven’t gone well. And I think that race was a combination of both. So, there’s things I need to tidy up.
“I think there’s been some good positives from the last two weekends as well. Just the results have, have not really gone with that,” summed up Piastri, who now has relegated himself to ‘nothing to lose’ situation where even race wins alone can’t get him the title. He will go out and give it his best as much he can, but sees it now as an outside chance to title than being a favourite.
“I think so, but it’s obviously now in the position where I can’t just win it by winning races,” said Piastri. “But what I can do is put myself in the best position to capitalise on if something does happen. So, for my own pride, ego and opportunities, I want to win the next two races. But yeah, that’s all I can do. And if things go my way, things go my way.
“And if they don’t, then it is what it is and I’ll try my best to have a good couple of last weekends. Yes and no. I mean it is an outside chance now. It’s again, like I said, I need things kind of outside of my control to also happen. So in some ways yes, but it doesn’t change the desire to want to do my best and try and win. And that’s what I’ll be focused on,” summed up Piastri.
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-formula-1-las-vegas-gp-verstappen-seizes-lead-as-norris-runs-wide-in-dramatic-start.1849555190074067783
Here’s Oscar Piastri in his fights: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/charles-leclerc-hunts-down-oscar-piastri-in-las-vegas.1849555171114783750
Here’s info on DQ
Here’s how F1 Las Vegas GP panned out
Here’s Oscar Piastri on social media gaffe
