Formula 1: Bombshell McLaren disqualification in Las Vegas opens up championship race for Max Verstappen

A bombshell double disqualification for McLaren has blown the Formula One driver’s championship wide open and moved reigning champion Max Verstappen into second, as well as potential favouritism, with two race weekends remaining.

In drama worthy of the sport’s high-profile documentary series Drive to Survive, the constructor’s champions were hauled before the stewards for a breach of the sport’s technical regulations in Las Vegas hours after the checkered flag.

Verstappen got the better of championship leader and Brit Lando Norris into the first corner of Sunday’s (AWST) Grand Prix before going on to win by more than 20 seconds.

The victory saw the Dutchman become the first driver to win multiple times at the relatively new event, but even more importantly, it kept the three-way shootout between Norris, himself and Australian Oscar Piastri for the world title alive.

The Red Bull star sat 42 points behind Norris at the end of the race and only 12 behind Piastri.

However, McLaren was called in front of stewards for a violation of the FIA’s technical regulations after the skid plate on both cars was judged to be less than the minimum 9mm.

The plate rests on the bottom of the car and makes impact with the asphalt during the race, causing the metal to wear.

McLaren appealed the decision into the early hours of the morning, but with the black-and-white nature of the rules, they had little wiggle room and were stripped of their points haul for the weekend.

The disqualification leaves Norris now holding a slender 24-point advantage heading into Qatar, a circuit Verstappen has starred at in the past, this weekend, while Piastri’s fall from the top step continues.

The Australian experienced another round of frustrations on the neon-gilded streets of Las Vegas.

A yellow flag stymied his final flying lap in qualifying to condemn him to the third row of the grid before he was shunted wide into the first corner to lose two places off the start.

He fought back to claim a fourth-placed finish after a five-second time penalty to Mercedes’ young gun Kimi Antonelli, but it all proved for naught as the disqualification wiped out his 12 points.

The Australian was already flat post-race, lamenting the lack of punishment for the Racing Bull drivers who forced him off at the start, an act he was penalised for in previous races.

“There’s not much to say (about that start). I felt like I was one of the only people that actually breaked to make the corner and I got barged out of the way,” a flat Piastri told Sky Sports after the race.

“And apparently that’s fine, so it is what it is. The rest of the race was eventful after that as well. A few too many mistakes, but from the start to the finish, just felt like there were some tough moments through the race.

“There felt like some good moments of pace, and in clean air, we were really quick, but just difficult before I got the clean air, and difficult after it ran out.

“It’s maybe not my favourite circuit of the year, but I’ve got plenty of tracks that aren’t my favourite that I’ve been good this year, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with that.”

It’s not all doom and gloom for Piastri, with the gap to Norris at the top narrower than before ruling.