Max Verstappen kept his title hopes alive in the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix with his sixth victory of 2025, and he also got a bonus after the stewards disqualified both McLarens for technical infringements.
The Red Bull driver really didn’t need any help in the Saturday night race after snatching the lead at the first turn when an overly optimistic polesitter and championship leader Lando Norris went wide and ended up third, behind Verstappen and Mercedes driver George Russell.
From there, Verstappen skillfully controlled the grand prix and the Red Bull driver never really faced a challenge.
“It helped, of course, to get into the lead in Turn 1. I do think, in the first stint, we were all finding our feet a bit with how much to push or not, how much we had to manage, because I do think we were all quite close up until the pit stops,” said Verstappen, who stopped for tires at the halfway point without losing the lead. “We always try to just maximize everything that we’ve got and, this weekend, that was first. The upcoming weekends we’ll again try to win the race and at the end of [the final grand prix in] Abu Dhabi, we’ll see where we end up.”
Although Norris recovered to get back ahead of Russell, it all went for naught when the post-race inspection found both McLarens’ skid blocks below the minimum 9 millimetre thickness required and the stewards excluded them from the results. Norris and Piastri’s cars failed by 0.12mm and 0.26mm respectively, both on the rearmost skids.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that both cars experienced porpoising [violent bouncing on the suspension] not seen in the practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground.
“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,” he said. “There was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed. We apologize to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today.”
Piastri definitely suffered damage to his car after being hit by Racing Bull driver Liam Lawson, who locked up into Turn 1 off the line, which dropped the McLaren driver two spots from his starting position.
In the end, instead of keeping the championship gap to 42 points with two races to go, the McLaren disqualification means that Verstappen now sits tied for second with Piastri, with 366 points, just 24 behind the leader Norris. Piastri crossed the line fourth and sat alone in second – 30 points behind – before being disqualified.
The disqualifications also helped Mercedes in its fight to take second in the Constructors championship, as both of its drivers were credited with a podium, Russell in second and Kimi Antonelli third. A 32-point gap from Mercedes to third-place Red Bull, before the McLaren exclusions, became a 40-point gap.
A total of 58 points remain up for grabs in the final two weekends, as the next race in Qatar features the season’s final Sprint race.
It turned out to be an eventful race for Russell, who battled steering issues throughout the event before having tire trouble in the late stages. He overcame the challenges to get onto the podium in third on track before moving up a spot.
“Obviously made a good start – probably only a tenth or so slower than Max in that first stint,” said Russell. “Then, after the pit stop, I saw that opportunity to attack and just pushed really hard for two laps, and I destroyed my tires. I knew with about 16 laps to go – or probably 20 – it was going to be very challenging to get to the end, so it wasn’t very enjoyable, to be honest, because I just couldn’t get around left-hand corners.”
The double disqualification promoted Mercedes rookie Antonelli to third, despite a five-second penalty for a jump start, giving him a second-consecutive podium finish. He scored his first top-three in Montreal’s Canadian Grand Prix.
“I am very happy with how our race went this evening. It felt like redemption after yesterday, where we were knocked out in Q1,” he said, before learning of the disqualifications. “It was a shame that we started so far back as, without that, we would have definitely been in the hunt right at the front. That said, we need to be pleased with how we performed today and that we were able to add good points for the team after a difficult qualifying.”
Las Vegas delivered craps for Aston Martin, with Canadian Lance Stroll barely getting his tires warm before his night ended, as he retired with a broken rear wing after being hit from behind by another driver at the first corner.
“Unfortunately I got hit at the start of the race and that was it for me in the first corner – that’s racing,” said Stroll. “On paper we didn’t expect to be too competitive tonight and don’t think much would’ve been possible for us.”
Stroll’s assessment seemed to be backed up by his teammate’s performance, with Fernando Alonso only managing to finish 13th.