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Norris and Piastri were disqualified after the Las Vegas Grand Prix for excessive plank wear, reshaping the 2025 F1 title fight and boosting Verstappen’s championship hopes.
McLaren’s Lando Norris faces an unexpected twist in the tale after his podium finish at the Las Vegas GP (Getty Images)
A dramatic twist hit the 2025 F1 title fight hours after the Las Vegas Grand Prix: both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified for excessive plank wear.
Norris had finished second behind Max Verstappen, with Piastri taking fourth, extending the McLaren star’s championship lead to 30 points. But, not anymore.
FIA delegates discovered excessive rear skid wear on both MCL39s — specifically, the plank thickness falling below the mandatory 9mm minimum.
After being referred to the stewards, both drivers were removed from the final results, wiping out Norris’s P2 and Piastri’s P4 finishes.
BREAKING: Both McLaren cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand PrixThis is because the thickness of the rearmost skid of both cars was less than the required thickness#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/gOplpgDHl7
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 23, 2025
Technical Trouble
Post-race checks found the rearmost skid on both McLarens below the mandatory 9mm thickness. That’s a black-and-white technical rule — and when teams fall foul of it, exclusions follow. The last comparable case was Nico Hülkenberg’s DSQ in Bahrain earlier this year.
McLaren representatives were summoned to the stewards at 11:45 pm local time, signalling the seriousness of the breach.
Title Standings in Flux
The DSQs dramatically reshape the 2025 championship battle. Race winner Max Verstappen now sits level with Piastri on 366 points, while Norris drops to 390 — a far slimmer 24-point advantage with two rounds and a sprint to go. A title fight that looked almost settled is suddenly wide open.
Suddenly, a title that looked comfortably within Norris’s reach would be wide open — and Verstappen, already on a charge, would be right back in the hunt for a fifth straight crown.
Fuel Guesswork — or Something Else?
McLaren argued there were “mitigating circumstances” — including unexpected porpoising, limited running due to weather on Day 1, and shortened practice sessions. The stewards rejected the defense, though the FIA emphasized it believed the breach was unintentional with no deliberate attempt to bypass regulations.
This isn’t the first skid-wear controversy of 2025: Lewis Hamilton (China) and Nico Hülkenberg (Bahrain) were previously disqualified for similar violations.
After training in the field of broadcast media, Siddarth, as a sub-editor for News18 Sports, currently dabbles in putting together stories, from across a plethora of sports, onto a digital canvas. His long-term…Read More
After training in the field of broadcast media, Siddarth, as a sub-editor for News18 Sports, currently dabbles in putting together stories, from across a plethora of sports, onto a digital canvas. His long-term… Read More
November 23, 2025, 15:40 IST
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