LAS VEGAS – Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday night, taking the lead from championship leader Lando Norris at the start and never looking back.
Formula One cars raced down the Las Vegas Strip for 50 laps at breakneck speeds of over 215 mph, delivering thrilling wheel-to-wheel racing under the bright lights for the third year in a row.
But in a bizarre twist, Norris and fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri were later disqualified in the middle of the night, hours after the race finish and podium celebrations, when officials discovered illegal wear on the bars on their cars.
Norris crossed the line in second place, ahead of fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth.
Their disqualification has huge consequences for the fight for the world title: there are only two Grand Prix races and one sprint left in the season.
This puts Norris just 24 points ahead of Piastri and four-time world champion Verstappen, who are second in points. Now Norris has 390 points, while Piastri and Verstappen have 366.
Formula One rules require the wooden runners under the cars to be at least 9mm thick – just wider than the width of a credit card – once the race is considered legal. The penalty for failure to meet this standard is disqualification. This is rare, but not unheard of.
“I’m just really disappointed with today,” Norris said before the suspension, while noting a positive. “Even when I feel like I’ve had a bad day, today was still a relatively good day.”
The 2025 season, full of twists and turns, has just two Grands Prix left – next weekend in Qatar and next weekend in Abu Dhabi. The Qatar race also includes a shortened 'sprint' race, so there is a maximum of 58 points left to score.
“It's still a big gap,” Verstappen said of the title fight in a post-race interview ahead of the McLarens' suspension. “We will try to win the race again this coming weekend and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up.”
Norris started first but lost two positions in the opening corners after moving aggressively to protect his lead, but ran wide at Turn 1 and was overtaken by Verstappen and George Russell. He eventually overtook Mercedes' Russell but was unable to get close to Verstappen and was forced to slow down towards the end with car problems. Russell finished third.
“I messed it up and made my life difficult on the first turn,” Norris said. “But even after that we weren’t fast enough… I tried my best and Max was still rebounding.”
Before the disqualification, Piastri was still six points behind Norris, but their difference is now 24 points.
“Obviously now I can't just win by winning races. But what I can do is put myself in the best position to take advantage of it if something happens,” Piastri told reporters. “So for the sake of my pride, ego and opportunity, I want to win the next two races… And if things go my way, things go my way, and if they don’t, then so be it.”
Economic boost for Las Vegas
Local leaders hope the race weekend will provide a much-needed economic boost to Las Vegas. this year has had to face difficulties due to high costs and decreased tourism, among other issues. Last year's Las Vegas Grand Prix had an economic impact $934 millionaccording to one of the estimates.
“This is a very important event. And I fully support all of our special events. We are not just the entertainment capital, we entertainment and sports capital“So to have such a large event on the Las Vegas Strip is great and it means a lot for our economy,” U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat who represents part of the city, told NBC News before the race.
Formula One is hoping to increase its popularity among American fans by adding races in Miami and Las Vegas – in addition to the long-running Grand Prix in Austin – to the calendar for a long time to come. This signed a five-year contract with Applewhich will take over US broadcast rights from ESPN starting next year.
Celebrities included musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z, actors Ben Affleck, Michael Douglas and Naomi Campbell, NBA stars Magic Johnson and Jimmy Butler, and tennis player Taylor Fritz. Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones waved the checkered flag.
The top three finishers were driven to the podium, which is located on the Strip at Bellagio's Fountain Club, in a pink LEGO-built Cadillac driven by Terry Crews.
Before the race, Ferrari superstar Lewis Hamilton took Beyoncé for a hot lap around the track, a team spokesman confirmed. as she was wearing a custom Louis Vuitton racing suit. The two stars were spotted watching the race from the Ferrari garage.
Also in attendance Saturday were Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Cash Patel, who were given a tour of the paddock by Formula One officials.
“I've always been a NASCAR fan and I've learned a lot about Formula 1 over the last couple of years and we're excited to see everyone racing,” Noem said, adding that she will be getting a tour of the McLaren garage. Patel called Formula 1 “one of the greatest sports” and said he was a McLaren fan.
Rain brought chaos to qualifying
Friday's qualifying session was thrown into chaos by rain, which required all the skills of the 20 drivers to avoid hitting the obstacles. The track, already known for its poor grip even in dry conditions, was slippery and treacherous for much of the session.
“You're just trying to stay on track. Don't crash. Don't put yourself out,” Norris said after taking pole position. “I just hope that one day – as well as having a two-seater Formula 1 car – people can experience how nerve-wracking and scary it can be at times. How unpredictable.”
And in the Las Vegas paddock over the weekend, internal drama erupted between several teams.
Piastri was asked about a recent repost of an Instagram post that quoted Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone as saying McLaren “prefers” Norris because of his “high star quality” and “marketing appeal.”
When asked about the repost, which was flagged online by Formula 1 content creators, Piastri told reporters that it was a mistake.
“I don’t know,” he said Friday after deleting the post from his feed. “I woke up this morning and saw it. So I don't know, maybe I did it by accident. Obviously it wasn't intentional. But yeah, I didn't know what happened.”
Instagram has one-click reposting—unlike X, which requires users to double-click to confirm—making it easy to mistakenly repost something while scrolling. However, it added to the drama, with fans of the Australian driver theorizing that the British team was favoring his British teammate, a claim McLaren vehemently denies.
Two Ferrari drivers have played down recent comments from Ferrari chairman John Elkann, who said they should “talk less and focus on driving” – remarks which critics have slammed as unfounded criticism of Leclerc and Hamilton after Ferrari's decision to build a new car by 2025 (rather than redesign last year's version) backfired and led to a winless season so far.
“I’m always willing to do less media,” Hamilton joked.
The seven-time world champion told reporters it was “impossible” to concentrate more on driving than he does now. “I wake up thinking about it. And I go to sleep thinking about it. And I think about it while I sleep,” Hamilton said.
Leclerc said the comment was a result of Elkann's desire to maximize the team's potential. “He loves Ferrari. I love Ferrari. We all love Ferrari,” Leclerc said. “When he called me, he told me what the intention of those words was and it was very clear. It was a positive message, an attempt to be positive.”
Ferrari currently sits fourth in a close battle for second place in the teams' championship, behind Mercedes and Red Bull. While the driver's title brings more glory, the constructors' championship awards cash prizes. Last year, Ferrari finished second behind McLaren in a close battle.
Although Hamilton said he doesn't have any positive feelings about his return from last place in the points, he is enjoying racing in Las Vegas.
“I love coming to Vegas,” he told reporters after the race. “I think it's a really great town. They always make you feel welcome. I think this is the biggest crowd we've ever seen, even though it's quite cold.”
And the weekend's events have varied over the course of three years as Formula One seeks a better balance between sport and spectacle.
“I think it's definitely better than it was a few years ago. I think it was too much for everyone,” Norris said. “We might as well have ended up in Cirque du Soleil with what we were doing back then.”
