Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have both been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, in a stunning post-race moment that has blown the battle for the Formula 1 drivers' championship wide open.
Max Verstappen is now in striking distance of the championship lead after driving his Red Bull to a commanding win on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday (AEDT).
Norris had finished second and Piastri placed fourth, before a bombshell dropped in Vegas.
F1's technical delegate, Jo Bauer, declared the thickness of the rear skid blocks on both cars was less than the minimum requirement of 9mm.
The skid blocks, also known as a plank, are attached to the floor of an F1 car, and regulate the height of the car off the ground.
The plank is exactly 10mm thick, and will wear over the course of a race when the car bottoms out and the floor hits the track.
The plank cannot wear by more than 1mm, otherwise the car is deemed too low.
At its worst spots, Norris's plank had worn by 1.12mm and Piastri's by 1.26mm.
That meant that not all of the plank was at least 9mm thick, and it was enough for the stewards to disqualify both drivers.
According to the report from the governing FIA, McLaren argued that the breach was less severe than previous instances this season, and it was caused by unexpected porpoising (car bouncing) during the race.
McLaren also argued that the disrupted practice sessions during the weekend, with poor weather and stoppages preventing teams from doing high-fuel runs, should be a mitigating factor.
While the stewards noted they believed McLaren did not intentionally try to break the rules, there was no choice but to disqualify both drivers.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified from the 2023 United States Grand Prix for the same reason.
Hamilton was also disqualified from this year's Chinese Grand Prix for a skid block infringement.
The disqualifications meant Norris and Piastri did not score any points from Sunday's race.
Norris leads the championship with 390 points, 24 ahead of Piastri on 366, the same as it was at the start of the weekend.
But Verstappen's win has now drawn him level with Piastri on 366 points, and within striking distance of Norris.
It is a stunning turnaround for Verstappen, who was 104 points behind Piastri at the end of the Dutch Grand Prix, seven rounds ago.
With Norris and Piastri disqualified, Mercedes duo George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished second and third.
Russell battled Norris for much of the race, but struggled for pace in the final quarter of the grand prix.
Antonelli started 17th on the grid, committed a false start — for which he was handed a five-second penalty — and then made his hard compound tyres last 48 of 50 laps after pitting at the end of the second lap.
Antonelli finished fourth on the road, in front of Piastri, but had been relegated to fifth after the penalty.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was upgraded to fourth place, followed by Carlos Sainz (Williams), Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), Esteban Ocon (Haas) and Oliver Bearman (Haas).
Verstappen keeps title hopes alive with dominant win
Needing a win to keep his hopes of a five consecutive drivers' championship alive, Verstappen pounced on an early mistake by pole sitter Norris, converting it into the 69th grand prix win of his F1 career.
Norris got off to a good start and immediately moved his car across the track to defend the first corner from Verstappen.
But Norris overshot the corner and ran wide, allowing Verstappen and Russell to pass.
Verstappen needed to fend off an almighty challenge from Russell in the early laps, but once the sting was out of the Mercedes attack, Verstappen was in firm control.
Russell and Norris engaged in a good battle for second, with Russell coming in much earlier for his pit stop than Norris.
But the McLaren had too much pace at the back end of the race to cross the line second, despite Norris nursing his car home over fears he would run out of fuel.
"The car was working pretty well, much more to my liking," Verstappen said.
"It was at the end quite a decent gap."
Formula 1 heads to Qatar next weekend for the penultimate round of the season.
Qatar will host a grand prix and a sprint race, with a maximum of 33 points a driver can score.
Re-live all the action of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix in the blog below.
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