Until three hours after the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, there was a feeling that McLaren and Lando Norris had played with fire in the penultimate round of the season. It was later confirmed that the British team, and their main gamble of being crowned again 17 years after last time, were completely scorched. An irregularity on the cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the pair from the Woking team (Great Britain), who finished second and fourth respectively, caused the World Championship to explode in an absolutely unexpected way for the happiness of Max Verstappen, who was initially about to leave the city that never sleeps with a remote possibility of retaining the title. Now, after a bureaucratic process that lasted until the early hours of the morning, he did it completely immersed in the ointment.
The Dutchman was the fastest this Saturday evening, a circumstance which led him to add his sixth race victory, one of the most important of his career from what we can assume. Norris’ second place put the Somerset boy in such a privileged position that it even allowed him to sing the alirón next weekend, in Qatar. However, the investigation launched by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) stewards as soon as the test ended ended like the rosary of dawn for the Papaya racing car troop.
The alarms sounded at 11.29pm. in Las Vegas, when an official FIA document revealed that the thickness of the resin pad in the lower part of the two MCL39s did not reach the nine millimeters required by article 3.5.9 of the technical regulations, as a minimum measurement. In this sense, it is worth noting that Lewis Hamilton had already been disqualified from the last Chinese Grand Prix for the same reason, as was Nico Hulkenberg, in Bahrain. In a first impulse, the regulatory body called the two pilots under investigation and representatives of their team to testify, so that they could offer a version that, in any case, would hardly have freed them from the sanction, confirmation of which came in a statement released at a quarter to two in the morning. It is still surprising that the final decision came just four hours after Verstappen was declared the Grand Prix winner, especially given the clarity of the regulations.
With this last-minute twist, George Russell went from finishing the podium to second, while Kimi Antonelli, his neighbor in the Mercedes garage, will be third after finishing fifth. Apart from this shock, which also affected Carlos Sainz (fifth) and Fernando Alonso (eleventh), the most significant effect is the one it has on the fight for the championship, which is heating up. As things stand, Norris continues to lead the overall standings, albeit now with just a 24-point margin over Verstappen and Piastri, joint second, and when there are still 58 points up for grabs. In a week the convoy will land in Qatar, where ‘Mad Max’ won last year and where the last sprint test of 2025 will take place.
Before the punishment inflicted on McLaren, Norris had a very clear match point to close the World Championship there, but now everything seems ready so that things will not be decided until Abu Dhabi, in 15 days and where Red Bull and its flagship already know what it means to celebrate the alirón in a heartbreaking finale. If not, ask Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, unable to raise their heads since that Sunday in December 2021.
