The 2025 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix WINNERS & LOSERS

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In a rather shocking twist, BOTH Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas GP for a technical fault, excess plank wear. The same thing that afflicted Ferrari back at the Chinese Grand Prix. A big loss, right there! All of this great news for Max Verstappen whose win brings just 24 points behind Norris with two rounds and a sprint to go.

Meanwhile, Mercedes secured another double podium at the track whilst many midfield runners like Sainz, Hulkenberg and Hadjar excelled in what is a crucial squabble there.

Who else won, lost or were just plain meh?

00:00 The Losers
04:12 Sponsor
05:57 The Loser (continued)
10:36 The Meh
13:05 The Winners

The 2025 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix WINNERS & LOSERS

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Things happen for a reason, folks. They really do. I get food poisoning. It means I have to delay writing the video of what happened after the Vegas Grand Prix and then this happens. And uh yeah, if you’re a McLaren fan, [Music] yeah, makes sense why I’m actually starting with the losers now. Just see whether or not you like it because uh this was timely. And this certain something broke relatively recently. Both Norris and Pastry have been disqualified from the race. their P2 and P4 respectively wiped away from the classifications and it now means Max is just one DNF no under one DNF behind Lando equaling Pestrian number of points the countback saving the Australians vacant look weight law why what exactly happened well it’s effectively the same reason of what happened with the double disqualification over in China for Ferrari excess plank wear with the skits and it was all to do with the rear management and based on what we have expected from McLaren going into this weekend. This kind of makes sense. They’re most likely having to run the car lower to make up for the fact that this track is not kind to them. They do not do well on low grit circuits and this is one of the lowest. But if you then happen to run the car lower than anybody else, then you just take a punt. And maybe that call for Lando to go and get Max might have been the thing that caused that excess wear, as in he went all out to try and go after him, but then ultimately finished 20 seconds behind him. So, but that didn’t work out. And the documents are right here. The team claiming that they didn’t mean for this excess wear to happen. Them claiming that accidental damage may have led to movement to the floor, which could have caused additional wear. But the FIA were not too sympathetic. A numerical breach. Yeah, that’s a slam dunk, mate. And this couldn’t have come at a worse time. Vegas’s initial result of P2 for Norris wasn’t terrible and meant that he had a comfortable lead still. So you could argue that he suffered more from this than Pastry did, who still has his 24 point gap to Norris instead of it being extended to 30 had the original result stood. Well, this has now thrown the championship back into play again with 58 points still available. And both Vstappen and Pastri 24 behind Lando. This is very much going to knock the psyche of the two McLaren drivers because this was something not of their own doing. This was a team bungle and they obviously apologize. They have no clue what happened. And you get the feeling that McLaren is actually realizing its own hubris with Zack Brown walking back all of his multiple comments saying, “Oh, Maxappen’s a bruiser. Yeah, he’s a bruiser. Yeah, he plays rough.” And uh yeah, now he’s not being so hot about that anymore. Cuz clearly I I I just think the drama with Max and Yoss going, “Oh yeah, Oscar falling off. Very bizarre, isn’t it? I mean, he can’t have just lost the skills to drive. I mean, very weird.” But okay, aside from the disqualification, even their race results weren’t quite as cleancut as they would have ideally liked to be, especially for the fact that Lando started on pole. And well, look what we got. Lando’s lunge into turn one. That was just too much on one of the shortest start straight on the calendar. He goes wide and both Max and George jump him by the time we get to the end of sector one. Certainly a dent in his recently consistent powerful forms in the last few races, but no biggie. He was still ahead of Pestri and he wasn’t losing that many points from Bustafen. And it was a good thing that Pastri once again had a bad start which saw him drop a couple of places which meant Lando losing places meant that he didn’t really lose out too much. But yeah, we all kind of expected that based on what Norris was able to provide that maybe one of them would get to the podium for the first time in McLaren’s history over at Las Vegas, the new one. But instead, we got this. This is very much becoming a certain situation where this is a cursed track from McLaren. Even when they have a second and fourth, it then gets taken away from them because a double DNF. Well, I mean, it’s a double DSQ. And now we’ve effectively got Hamilton andlair just giving them a sympathetic ear and saying first time because this is not the first time that they known about plank wear. That’s happened to them twice. Incidentally, Pastry’s plank was slightly more worn than Norris’s. Probably a setup thing to wield more grip. helped when he had owned his own gaff going into turn 12 and lost a place to llair. Good thing his pit plan got him back ahead of him and within a few seconds of a podium, but now it doesn’t matter. Okay, we’ll get back to the winners in a moment, but first I would like to share with you today’s sponsor, Raycon, and they’re essential openear earbuds. 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I’ve used Raycon earbuds for a while now, and they’ve really helped me wind down while I’ve been working all day up the ladder, as was with scripting sessions. their active noise cancelling really helping me tune out of the unwanted noise and help me tune in to the wanted noise. In my case, uh Apple Music’s Spa Playlist. Black Friday is around the corner. Raycon audio products are up to 30% off sitewide. From everyday essentials to the latest releases, it’s the perfect time to upgrade your sound or get ahead on gifting. These early deals won’t last long, so shop now before they’re gone. Just click the link in the description below or go to buyracon.com/lawvs open to secure yours. All on which to save on Raycon audio products sitewide. So, thanks again for sponsoring the video. And the award for the scruffiest driver this time out goes to yeah, Alex Albon. He wins that handily. The only driver to ride off his car in qualifying, starting low down on the grid and then his ballet radio cuts out for the duration, meaning he’s without contact with his pit wall. That being said, I recall him in qualifying said there was too much speaking. Maybe this is a case of, “Oh, be careful what you wish for.” But in any case, this is yet another race where the tie driver just couldn’t hold a candle to what his Spanish teammate was able to do. He goes out in Q1. He does raise up a couple of places. It looked likely he might have squeaked another point, but then his tangle with Hamilton, it resulted in a 5-second time penalty and then it ultimately led to his retirement on lap 35. So, he didn’t really get much time to try and do things. And then he rammed the back of Colipinto which probably did even more damage to the front. So you think this was not a clean weekend for Alex, not one bit. This was very much a low eb race one which once again he did not score. And science is getting closer in the championship. Then we got Aston Martin. You got to feel sorry for Lance here especially. As I said in my quali video, Stroll had the potential of joining his teammate in Q3 but was a sacrificial lamb in regards to when to go on to Winters in Q2. Still though, P12 wasn’t too bad. But then it crumbled after he got dinged by Gabrielle Bortalto and that was the end of that. Granted though, it was pretty much going to be a minor miracle of Aston Martin scoring points in dry conditions. Fernando Alonzo himself said that and Lance Stroll kind of accepted this as well that it was just a case of you got to get off the line and make sure you’re not in traffic if you want to have a hope of P10 at best. And also he was actually quite consiliatory regarding to Bortalto saying, “Yeah, yeah, no worries about Gabby. He’s a good kid.” I mean, this is all in this beef with Colinto, as in like, “Oh, I like you, Gabby. I don’t like you, Franco.” Dad, get Franco out of here. Yeah, I mean, it’s slightly condescending for Lance to call Gabby a good kid. But hey, at least there are no hard feelings considering that this is once again a time when Stroll has had a DNF through nothing really directly his fault. So, with that in mind, the team did lose out on points. With Alonzo, him starting seventh, he fell back to a net 11th. His race pace was nowhere near that P7 start. He slid backwards as the Haspair and others got by and he never really recovered after the lap one chaos around him. So for a veteran when things go south all around, this was a very disappointing time of it and I think it was a collective disappointing moment with Lawson being taken out at the start. It was like a a man justifiably so because he once again outqualified Hajar. He started P6. It looked like he might have had a chance of securing even higher positions, but then he got into a tangle with Pestri, which sent him packing and then he had to pit and then he was relegated to the back ultimately finishing 14th. But fortunately for him, the stewards chose not to penalize him. This being a classic lap one, turn one incident. Pastry didn’t get anything towards him and ultimately it was a case of well, you’ve just got this and you’ve now got to deal with it. similar to Silverston really. And for a situation where his teammate hung in there to secure a valuable 12 points and your chances of a podium was somewhat plausible, or at least another top five, this was obviously a crushing blow. I would imagine that his odds of surviving into next year won’t be dented too bad since his descent to the bottom wasn’t down to a performance issue. It was just down simply to the car giving out on him. But the same couldn’t be said for Bortalto. Yeah, this was uh not good at all. Not good at all. Not only did he take Stroll out and himself, but he wound up with no mercy for a lap one incident. He got his first two penalty points of the year and a five place grid drop for Qar. The Brazilian claiming that he had a good run on Albon and went for a dive only to misjudge the breaking point. Oops. To be fair, this is the continuation of somewhat wobbly end to his debut season. You know, after having two DNFs in Brazil and now this, this is very much him completely falling across the finishing line, very much running on fumes. But yeah, you can easily chalk this up to being in the hard lessons folder. This was yet another hard lesson for him. Alpine had a hope for a chance of P10 with Gastly starting there. But he too was involved in the Bortalto stroll incident and it saw him spin out and fall down the order. His car completely being wrecked at the back and lustly no chance of a single point. Him claiming the car looked fairly decent in all conditions. His race over within a few hundred meters though. And the same could be said for the Franco Colopinto. after him being a little bit too cautious around Vegas qualifying. He got a decent start but then was rammed in the bat by Alex meaning that his own diffuser was compromised and it meant that really there wasn’t much Alpine could do to try and make up the difference and maybe score a cheeky point with either driver. And even when the times were good, he was actually suffering from poor rear grip. So naturally, this contact with Alex would have just made it even worse. So the team are basically just saying, “Well, we had a chance, but it was out of our control. We’re probably just going to go to Qar and hope we will have something tidy like we had last time out with Pierre Gassley in top five. And now we get to the mess section. You might be thinking I’m being too fair to Cenodo and the results would reflect that because qualifying was a disaster thanks to a tire pressure error which effectively ruined a session and left him on the back row. Then Red Bull chose to start him in the pit lane to sort the car. Lauren Mecky’s profusely apologizing to Yuki once again for a breakdown in strategy which meant he started lower than he would have hoped to or expected that he could. And then it didn’t help that the timing of his various strategy calls around the virtual safety car weren’t much cop either. It does very much seem that he is getting the raw end of the stick and that unfortunately it seems that the overall perception is lost amongst the overall media. And even with the changes he brought in after qualifying, they didn’t really do much to help him. Yuki very much aware that a lot of things are happening out of my control lately, but I can only control what I can control with him noting that pace and confidence is slowly improving. But still, the team let him down again with a bad call. Do I think the media will sympathize though? Probably not. I actually recall one article recently that blamed Max’s P16 starter Brazil on Yuki because they went with his setup going into Q1 and that’s why Max crashed out. It was too much in terms of downforce. So naturally, the sentiment of that article was enough to fuel the fire that is burning in anti-enot sentiment. So all I can ask you is that just give this guy a break. I mean the team principal mechy’s is. Then there’s Lewis Hamilton. You know what? I’ll give him a break here, too. He started 19th after Cenod’s moved to the pit lane. He did manage to clap back into the point after his worst non- mechanical starting place in his whole career. No wonder he calls this year his worst season ever. And the first stint was pretty strong as he sliced past the slower cars and dragged the Ferrari into the low end of the points. The real damage came in the second phase where he pretty much hit his limit and remained behind Nico Hulenberg yet again. This was not the first time this has happened this year. Then there was the clash with Albomb that didn’t help. Bandon Hamilton not the one to blame this time around. It did therefore compromise his own performance at the very least. But still he managed to after the exclusion of the two McLarens come away starting 19th and ultimately finishing eighth. So quite frankly that’s not the worst thing that could have happened. He still savaged some points for the constructor’s hopes of not finishing fourth and that really does matter and that this was a case of self-determination and just grinding all the way to at least somewhere in the top 10. It felt like a decent result after a really poor qualifying, but it very much met its limit. And when you consider his old team managed to get a double podium after the McLarens removed from the results, the P8 of Hamilton feels like it was a serviceable one rather than a special one. But okay, now we get on to the winners. And I mean, quite frankly, Max Stappen, he’s the biggest winner out of all of this by far. Yes, this wasn’t one of his wild comeback specials. It was the kind of calm clinical execution that wins people titles. He read Norris’s aggressive squeeze akin to omnim man and just went please. He break late yet cleaner to turn one and he grabbed the lead because of it. From there he controlled everything as we seen time and time again. It was looking quite spicy with George Russell in the beginning part of the stint. But we then found out that George Russell’s car was ultimately compromised for steering issues and he really did go ham on those tires early on. So those two things together, yeah, it ultimately meant he fell back and the rest of it was history. Max was very much destined to win this Grand Prix and he did so by about 20 seconds over Lando Norris in P2. It became 23 seconds when Lando was ejected from the results and it really helped that the longer run on the first stint allowed them to be a bit more flexible with the second one meaning that he could at least manage more or push more. He had everything afforded to him was several seconds ahead of everyone else. And the communication with the Pit Wall he said was absolutely great. He had no complaints and this is exactly what he said not that long ago saying that Red Bull have to be perfect every single weekend if he has the hopes for a world championship the fifth one. Well, I would say this was pretty close to perfect even though he did start P2. But then when you consider what happened, it did turn out for the best. And crucially, this win means that his title hopes are still very much alive. Then the doubleclan disqualification happened and it’s even better for him. With 58 points to play for in Maxloving sprints, this is really game on again after Brazil and Mexico saw his prospects die a little bit. And yeah, that clash with George at the Spanish Grand Prix. That’s going to be on the back of his mind even more now. And Mercedes, you know what? Despite the result looking clean on paper, they still leave Vegas with a second and third, but the detail when you look into it is a little bit more interesting. George, yeah, he got on the first two rows in qualifying and he managed to get around Norris and started in P2 come the second sector. And it looked really likely he was about to jump max. But it became clear as time progressed that a ongoing steering issue came back. Even though that Mercedes are claimed to completely change the whole thing and it resulted in him really not having much of a leg to stand on. He started off strong in both stints against Vstappen, but it all quickly fell off again. So P2 that’s not too bad after all things considered. He would have been a podium anyway because all of that opened the door for Norris to repass him and him not really fighting Lando in that capacity with a duff car. And behind him, Kimmy Antonelli delivered the standout drive despite a time penalty for jumping the start. He then somehow poked those tires all the way to the finish, managing the graining really, really well in the middle of the stint especially. And it ultimately meant that the time penalty that he got for jumping the start, it being frankly a rolling start was, you know, irrelevant. He only lost one place that was being Pastro’s, but when Pastro got disqualified, it meant that he therefore kept his P3. And that means he’s had backto-back podiums now. And this one at a street circuit. This is a real boost for his own career and his prospects in learning all of this stuff. Then there’s Charlair. I would still call him a winner, but still two tenths. Two ten away from inheriting a third. Must have felt gutting afterwards. And Charlotte Clair walking away from Vegas annoyed with initially P6 on the timing screen. His performance though was a clear positive because that pace of that Ferrari that he was wielding was actually pretty good in the opening stint. actually being toe-to-toe with the likes of Oscar Pastri and him very much making the most of Pastri going deep into turn 12 down the long strip straight and meaning that he was in a position where he could contend for the top four placements and it got really close that my predictions were not all that far off actually. The trouble is though is that the pit wall chose him to run a little bit longer on the tire he already had which meant that he lost the opportunity for an undercut and it all completely fell off with him falling back behind Pestria again and it was all to do for him again. He tried to compensate with very deep braking, him being stuck in a big DRS train. Yet, there’s only so much you can do when your car drags down the straights. His team boss admitting the error choice they made for overtaking was harder, which backs uplair’s feeling that he had given it everything from that car. So, I do think he belongs in the winners column here. Not because of the finishing position, but because the raw driving and race cars were at a level that he really does deserve more. And sight, oh yeah, he deserves plaudits, too. He might have lost two positions after qualifying third, but losing them to a Mercedes and a Ferrari, that’s not too bad. And quite frankly, this is one of the most valuable results that Williams got this season that this is vindication after 2023 when times were not so good and they were had a double Q3 appearance and they failed to capitalize on it. Now just two years later, they got into the top five for the first time and they got 10 very valuable points in securing their fifth place in the constructors. I think it’s very very difficult for anyone else like racing balls or has to try and catch up at this point with two Grand Prix and a sprint to go and yeah even though Carmas gave it everything and he was great in qualifying he just simply was outmatched by those around him you know Mercedes McLaren Ferrari Red Bull they were just all too much for him and science admitted that Williams were probably a bit conservative with their calls just trying to secure a solid result rather than maybe try something a bit risky with the faster cars but still 10 points that’ll do especially now he’s not all that far behind Alex Aburn in the championship ship standings after having a really difficult start to the year. And the important thing is here is that this year’s car looked like the quickest of the midfield over a full stint, which is exactly where Williams needs to be if they want to keep on their trend going into next year. And then there’s Hajar. You know what? Despite him having a podium to his name already, this was probably one of his best all round performances in his F1 career so far because racing balls were riding in Vegas without long run data after messy practice sessions, as was the case for pretty much everybody else. So, they were all kind of going into this with a bit of a question mark. And you know what? They got into Q3 with a really, really decent result with both guys in Q3. And even though Hajar did finish behind Lawson, P6, he still was able to hold his own and he managed to actually make up a couple of places and be a competitive little annoyance for the likes of Pestrianlair. He also started in the right area of the pack and he managed to avoid the turn one chaos. And quite frankly, there was a lot of turn one chaos, so that was an absolute boon for him. And then it was a case of not exactly full-blown tire management. It was a case of just, you know, just protecting the tires a little bit. And then he reflected afterwards that he probably was a little bit too careful. But again, this is a really important time for racing balls where they could stand to get sixth place in the constructors. They need these points and they lost a big chunk of them from Liam. So Isaac had to pick up the pieces. Even then, he spent much of the evening around the top six at one point hunting down Carlos for fourth. And the McLaren drivers, they had to really think about him. So six at the flag and a chunk of points. I thought 30 points would be good for his rookie year, but now he’s breached 50. That’s very nice. Now, Hulenberg, after a run of poor qualifying form in his postdebut podium, not bringing in a dawn of grid results as expected, he now has once again scored whilst his Brazilian teammate has fallen flat. Sala choosing to put him on the hard tire at the start of the race and that actually turned out to be a little bit of a boon which resulted him climbing up the order and not really losing that much time with all of those old tires. It was a lot more preserving than many people expected. and maybe some people would curse, that being Pirelli. He managed the early laps in traffic and he managed to hold his own. So when time came for Lewis Hamilton to engage, it meant that the Salva driver had plenty to work with and he managed to keep out Hamilton by a good several seconds. From there it was classic Hulenberg. No drama and he settled for what became seven. Not close enough to challenge Hajar, but enough to prevent Hamilton from passing. The team accepting that everyone who finished ahead had both started ahead and had more raw speed than them, which tells you that they have pretty much reached the top of this car’s ceiling. And for Salva, this was a really important time of it all because Aston Martin and H, they scored more than them. And speaking of H, they left Vegas feeling slightly disappointed with 11th and 12th. And when they woke up, they found both cars were in the points. 9th and 10th. All right, three points. Cool. And because of limited running in FP2 in a wet qualifying session, it left them flying half blind. Yet the strategist managed to read the race well enough to commit both Okan and Bearman to a one-stop. Bareman, he got as high as seventh at one point, I saw. But then eventually he did fall back to where he ultimately finished in 12th. Oen though, all of those races where he had to basically go long, it’s now paid dividends with him scoring more than Bareman. Yeah, two points to one, but it’s something. It’s going to give the Frenchman some kind of crumb of comfort that the team does have his back. He then spent much of the race dueling with Hamilton for what would become P8, and he did come up short, but it was a nice little battle between the two Ferrari powered drivers, I would say. And this result, thanks to the McLaren Plank saga, means that they are now very much in play in securing P7 and the constructors after them now surpassing Aston Martin. And I now, sir or madam, pass you over to this video right here, which I do think you will enjoy. I just need a glass of water throughout with you.