McLaren apologise to Norris, Piastri for DSQ and reveal car damage

McLaren have apologised to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after both drivers were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Norris and teammate and title rival Piastri were thrown out of the race after their MCL39s were found to have excessive plank wear on the rearmost skid block.

Briton’s Norris had finished second behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to extend his championship lead and move closer to winning a maiden world title, while Piastri finished fourth.

But both drivers were excluded from the final classification following an FIA investigation.

“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," McLaren team principal Andrea 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.”

Stella revealed McLaren’s cars suffered accidental damage as a result of “unexpected, high levels of porpoising” that was not detected during the practice sessions in Las Vegas.

"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,” he added.

"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 and Piastri react to DSQs

The double disqualification has had major implications on the title race, leaving Norris just 24 points clear of both Verstappen and Piastri heading into the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

"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," Norris said.

"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 commented: “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."