Las Vegas GP: McLaren apologise to Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri for disqualifications and reveal cars were damaged

McLaren have apologised to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for their exclusions from the Las Vegas Grand Prix and revealed both cars sustained "accidental damage".

Norris finished second behind race-winner Max Verstappen to extend his lead in the Drivers' Championship, with Piastri in fourth, but the McLaren duo were disqualified four hours after the Grand Prix for excessive skid block wear.

It means Norris is 24 points ahead of Piastri and Verstappen with two rounds remaining in Qatar, which is a Sprint weekend, and Abu Dhabi.

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"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," said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

"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."

McLaren argued to the stewards that the red flags and wet weather during practice limited their dry running which caused "unexpected" porpoising - bouncing from the car.

Stella also says both cars sustained damage which was only discovered after the race, which led to more floor movement and skid wear.

He said: "We were found in breach of Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations, which requires a minimum of 9mm skid thickness. Car 4 was found in breach by a maximum of 0.12mm of the rearmost skid and Car 81 by a maximum of 0.26mm of the rearmost skid.

"During the race, both cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising 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.

"As the FIA noted, the breach was unintentional, there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed."

Norris 'frustrated' to lose points in title race

Norris, who can still seal the championship if he leaves next Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix with a lead of 26 points or more over Piastri and Verstappen, was asked to lift and coast during the last three laps of the race.

He was running comfortably in second place but lost eight seconds to George Russell behind him as he tried to manage what we now know was skid block wear.

"A frustrating end to today. We had to do some managing towards the end of the race and now we know it was due to some issues on our car, which have unfortunately resulted in us being disqualified," said Norris, who is looking to become Britain's 11th F1 world champion.

"It's 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.

"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."

Piastri's car was notably sparking and bumping when he overtook cars as he recovered to his original result of fourth.

The Australian said: "Disappointing to come away from this weekend with no points after an unfortunate disqualification due to skid wear.

"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.

"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."

F1's season-ending triple header continues with the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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