The third running of the las Vegas Grand Prix was an extraordinary weekend. Charles Leclerc briefly raised Ferrari\s hopes by being quickest in FP1 whilst Yuki Tsunoda was third behind Alex Albon but a tenth quicker than his world champion team mate.
Red Flags in effect cancelled the last twenty minutes of the FP2 session, meaning the teams lost valuable data being unable to complete long run race simulations.
Come Saturday morning the rain was ever present and the session was run mostly with cars on the intermediate Pirelli tyres. At the start of qualifying, the rain had intensified and those who opted for the intermediates were quickly recalled to fit the full rain blue sided Pirelli P1.
McLaren manage Norris to perfection in qualifying
McLaren managed Lando Norris track position to perfection, as he was one of the last cars to start the final flying lap. Verstappen was almost three quarters of the circuit ahead of his championship rival and failed to benefit from the rapidly drying track.
Come the race, the rain had disappeared, but the coldest track temperatures of the season meant the drivers had to prepare for the start of the race with different procedures than usual. As the complete the formation lap and approach the grid, each driver usually performs 2-3 burn outs – where they spin up the wheels in an attempt to add temperature into the surface of the tyre.
In Sin City, so cold was the asphalt that drivers were performing five burnouts as they approach their grid positions. Lando Norris appeared distracted by the fact that Max Verstappen behind him was a long way back and he failed to follow the five buyout instructions, doing just the regular three.
Norris distracted by Verstappn gamesmanship
When the lights went out, it was clear the Red Bull driver had made a marginally better start than his McLaren rival and Norris swerved across the track to hug the wall on the inside of turn one, right ahead of Verstappen.
Yet in hindsight, Norris didn’t need to be so far across to block his rival and the subsequent shallow angle he created for turn one became his undoing. Max drifted to the right for a better line into the first corner and Lando misjudged his braking going too deep and off the track at the left handed.
This allowed Verstappen and Russell to sneak by and while Norris regained the position on the Mercedes driver he would stare at the back of the RB21 for the rest of the race. The big question is whether Verstappen by hanging back on the formation lap, out psyched Norris who appeared to forget the extra burn outs which may have given him better grip when arriving at the first corner?
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Norris holds his hands up
The championship leader was heard repeatedly complaining to his engineer Will Jospeh about how Verstappen was too far behind on the formation lap. Yet after the race and before he knew of his disqualification, Lando admitted he’d messed up the first corner.
“I messed up Turn 1 – it was pretty poor from me,” Norris said in the media pen. “I braked too late. So yeah, it was all on me, pretty poor from myself. But even if I came out in P1 out of Turn 1, we were not quick enough today. Same as Brazil.
“Max has done a very good job and the Red Bull is very quick. They deserve the win today. They were in another league compared to us. So a bit of a shame that we didn’t have more pace, but we’ve got to try and improve a bit more.”
Lando evaded questions on whether he had been distracted by Verstappen’s antics on the way to the grid. However the McLaren team boss appeared to suggest that Max had got inside Lando’s head as he considered an intervention from the post wall.
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McLaren boss admits Norris was worked up
“Instinctively, actually, I thought at the pit wall to tell Will to say like, ‘Tell him to stay calm’,” Andrea Stella told Sky Sports. “But we don’t know whether that was an influence or not.” Yet the fact that Stella even considered an intervention from the pit wall suggests they felt Lando had been affected by the antics of his rival.
“He was trying to defend the position, but I think on the inside he found much less grip than what he anticipated and he went a little bit long. It’s racing, we lost the position, we regained one on track with Russell, but I’m not sure we could have kept the lead with the pace Verstappen exhibited.
“I think we have to sort of acknowledge that Red Bull and Verstappen today were a little bit faster. Obviously it would have been interesting to see if we were in condition to take the lead at the start and somehow use the clean air that you have when you get in the lead. But honestly Max was faster than us in pretty much all conditions,” the McLaren boss concluded.
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Coulthard says ‘Lando doesn’t know the rules of Max’s game’
Channel 4 presenter David Coulthard was blunt inn his opinion. “Lando Norris tried to play Max Verstappen at his own game, the problem is that he doesn’t know the rules of that game,” said the former McLaren driver.
The 2009 F1 champion with Brawn, Jenson Button applauded Norris aggressive stance as the lights went out. Speaking to McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown he noted, “The start was obviously very aggressive by Lando, it was lovely to see that aggression but it looked like he just went a little bit deep into Turn 1.”
Brown replied: “Yeah, exactly. Max got a little bit better jump and Lando went to protect and just cooked it a little bit. But good to see he wasn’t going to make it easy.”
Yet the key to Verstappen’s better start looks as though it was due to him better preparing the tyres on the formation lap. The two extra burn outs were critical on such a cold evening in the desert and Norris cooler tyres couldn’t complete.
FIA recent rule change irritates Ferrari
The 2025 Formula One season has seen six cars disqualified from the Grand Prix, a record number since 1988 when there were two more. It all began badly for Ferrari at the second round in Shanghai, where after claiming Sprint glory Lewis Hamilton was disqualified on Sunday for his car running at an illegal ride height.
His team mate Charles Leclerc was also disqualified for his car being underweight at scrutineering. Pierre Gasly was also excluded from the classified result for his Alone being under weight.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber was also adjudicated to be below the minimum weight in Bahrain and then came the earth shattering news that both McLaren drivers were excluded from the Las Vegas Grand Prix with their cars significantly below the legal ride height…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
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