McLaren cannot breathe easy at the season finale in Abu Dhabi after a terrible weekend at the Las Vegas GP.
McLaren have been a team on the rise in Formula 1 since Austria. They have rarely had a bad weekend. However, all that momentum came crashing down at the Las Vegas GP. The team had a horrendous qualifying with both drivers out in Q1. Then, Lando Norris crashed in the race and Oscar Piastri only finished 10th. What’s worse is that Aston Martin gained 10 points over them, and are now just 11 points away. Therefore, they cannot rest easy during the title decided in Abu Dhabi.
A Terrible Qualifying
McLaren had a terrible qualifying at the Las Vegas GP. While they were off-pace during the weekend, they shouldn’t have been knocked out in Q1. They messed up their run plans and left Lando Norris in the pits and Oscar Piastri on old tyres.
On a track that was evolving every second, this was a major mistake.
Also Read: Las Vegas GP Qualifying: McLaren endures horrible session, Both cars out in Q1
A Scary Crash for Norris
Lando Norris had a good start at the Las Vegas GP. However, the tricky conditions at the start of the race caught the McLaren star out. He lost his car in a corner and had a huge crash.
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Before this crash at the Las Vegas GP, he had the second-longest current race-finishing streak in Formula 1. Officials took him to the medical center for testing. After the tests, he wrote on social media “Rough day. Big impact. But feeling okay! Thanks for all the messages, See you next weekend.”
An Unlucky Race for Piastri
Oscar Piastri was extremely unlucky in the Las Vegas GP. He had a ton of race pace, but no luck. He was climbing up the field steadily when an opportunistic move by Lewis Hamilton went wrong. The Mercedes star tried to overtake his McLaren. There was some tyre-to-tyre contact and both drivers got punctures.
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Even after this, Oscar Piastri was running in 3rd/4th near the end of the Las Vegas GP. But he had to pit again because he hadn’t used a second tyre compound during the race.
The race pace looked good for McLaren. But they have their work cut out to try and save their 4th place in the Formula 1 Championship from Aston Martin.
