Apology issued but Las Vegas DQ pain set to continue for Oscar Piastri in F1 world championship fight

Oscar Piastri has received an apology from his McLaren bosses over their disastrous Las Vegas Grand Prix — but the disqualified Australian ace now faces the prospect of even missing out on the runner’s-up spot in the F1 world championship.

Former long-time championship leader Piastri is clinging on in the hunt for the title, still 24 points behind his teammate Lando Norris, who like the Aussie was also disqualified in Vegas because their cars were found post-race not to comply with technical regulations.

McLaren’s misjudgement, with the skid blocks on both cars being found to be less than the minimum depth allowed by the rules, meant Norris, who’d finished second, and fourth-placed Piastri both ended up pointless for the weekend.

Piastri must be pleased in one sense because the double DQ has pulled him back closer to Norris than he was when they crossed the finish line.

But that silver lining has been tempered because with just two rounds left — in Qatar, where there’s a sprint race as well, and Abu Dhabi — Red Bull’s race winner and defending champion Max Verstappen is right back into the thick of the hunt, now level on points with Piastri on 366 points behind Norris’s 390.

It’s potentially calamitous news for the 24-year-old Piastri, who was 34 points clear of Norris and a massive 104 points ahead of Verstappen after his Dutch Grand Prix win at the end of August.

The Melburnian’s form has since fallen off so dramatically — he’s not made the top-three in his last six races at a time when Verstappen has podiumed in all six and won three — that the flying Dutchman now must be hot favourite to finish the season ahead of him, even if Norris remains a strong title frontrunner.

The ‘what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas’ 2am drama showed that anything is still possible, reminding everyone that a similar bombshell disqualification or a race-ending crash/mechanical failure in Qatar could yet completely reshape the title battle at the death.

But there just seems no sign of Piastri arresting his dispiriting run — in his last six races, he’s crashed out in Azerbaijan, finished fourth in Singapore and fifth in his next three races before his Vegas DQ — as he has once again to lick his wounds and get ready for the quick turnaround to Qatar.

Both he and Norris, who also suddenly faces a two-pronged threat to what still should be his title to lose, had left the track when McLaren put out a statement, featuring team principal Andrea Stella’s apology to the two drivers and team fans.

McLaren had argued mitigating circumstances in the form of “unexpected, high levels of porpoising” and rain and other stoppages impacting their ability to test setups on Thursday and Friday.

The stewards said the FIA argued that “unfortunately” the rules did not allow for any other penalty but “strongly held the view” that it was unintentional and there was no deliberate attempt to breach the rules.

“We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend,” Stella said.

“As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much.

“While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season.”

Piastri said in a brief comment it was “disappointing” to finish the weekend with no points because of the “unfortunate disqualification”.

“With how close the grid is, we’re always looking at where we can gain performance, and we didn’t get it right this time,” he said.

“We now need to reset, refocus and push to get the best points possible in the final two rounds, both tracks that we’ve been strong at previously.”

Norris called it “frustrating to lose so many points”.

“As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right today,” he said.

“Nothing I can do will change that now, instead full focus switches to Qatar, where we’ll aim to go out and deliver the best possible performance in every session.”

- with 7NEWS