“We were already managing the problem that disqualified us” – Lando Norris on McLaren’s Vegas nightmare. Lando Norris reacts to the shock double McLaren disqualification in Las Vegas.

Norris: “Frustrating to lose so many points. In the end I was managing because of the issues that caused the disqualification”

The World Championship leader was left disappointed after the unpleasant post-race surprise.

A day to forget for McLaren

When Lando Norris secured a fantastic wet-weather pole position in Las Vegas, many believed the English driver’s path toward the World Championship was becoming increasingly straightforward. At the start, however, Norris was anything but cautious. He aggressively fought Max Verstappen, squeezing him towards the wall with conviction. Unfortunately, he then ran wide at Turn 1, dropping to third place after also being overtaken by George Russell.

Norris then focused his recovery on the Mercedes driver, completing the overtake in the second half of the race. The championship leader was not able to close the gap to Max Verstappen afterwards and settled for second place, partly due to an undefined issue on his McLaren that cost him several seconds.

The bitter surprise arrived after the chequered flag when the FIA disqualified both his car and Oscar Piastri’s for a technical infringement. As a result, Lando Norris — who had been +30 ahead of Oscar Piastri and +42 ahead of Max Verstappen — will now head to Qatar with a reduced +24 margin over both rivals.

Norris reveals: “In the end we were managing because of the issues that led to the disqualification”

“A frustrating end to the day. We had to manage the situation towards the end of the race and now we know it was because of some problems with our car, which unfortunately led to the disqualification. It’s frustrating to lose so many points. As a team, we always try to extract the maximum performance and today we clearly didn’t manage to find the right balance. There’s nothing I can do to change the situation now, so I will fully focus on Qatar, where we’ll aim to deliver our best in every session.”

Is Piastri truly disappointed?

Oscar Piastri had finished the race in fourth place, increasing his deficit from 24 to 30 points behind the World Championship leader and teammate Lando Norris. With the double disqualification, the Australian returns to -24, meaning that despite the setback, Piastri effectively gained back six points.

His comment was as follows: “It’s disappointing to end this weekend with no points after an unfortunate disqualification due to skid wear. With such a competitive grid, we always try to understand where we can improve performance, but this time we couldn’t make it work. Now we need to reset, refocus and push to score as many points as possible in the last two rounds, both on circuits where we have achieved good results in the past.”

From title favourite to fighting for survival in the space of one scrutineering check. Qatar can’t come soon enough for McLaren – and it suddenly feels like the biggest weekend of Lando Norris’s career.