Max Verstappen’s faint hopes of a fifth straight world title sparked back into life following a dramatic aftermath to the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The thrilling three-way fight for the race win anticipated between Verstappen, Lando Norris and George Russell failed to materialise on the city’s iconic Strip.
But the drama was saved for after the race when both Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified hours later for a technical infringement to spark Verstappen’s title hopes back into life.
The skid blocks on the underside on both McLarens were found to be less than the minimum depth in the regulations. There are set parameters to avoid the cars running too low and thereby risking driver safety by enabling the cars to effectively be unsafely quick in the eyes of the authorities.
It means Norris is now 24 points ahead of both Verstappen and Piastri with 58 points available with a sprint race in Qatar as well as grands prix there and in Abu Dhabi.
In the entertainment capital of the world, it was the drama the championship needed after what have proved a dull procession beyond the opening lap.
Starting on pole, most predicted polesitter Norris would take a conservative approach off the line on the cusp of a maiden world title with a large championship lead but, in Sin City, he bizarrely took a gamble by cutting aggressively across Verstappen.
It backfired immediately as it forced him off the track at the next corner and allowed both title rival Verstappen and Russell past and, from there, it proved a steady march to the chequered flag for the Dutchman.
There had been much conjecture in the race build-up about the unknown performance of the Pirelli tyres in the cooler temperatures but Verstappen had no issues on either the medium, on which he started, nor the hards, on which he finished.
It meant the only question mark remained his solitary pitstop. Some crews were slicker and quicker than Red Bull but the three seconds it took his pitcrew still saw him come out in front of Russell by 1.3 seconds at the halfway point.
From there, he slowly stretched his advantage to take the win from Norris, who passed a struggling Russell late on, although the former suffered a late issue which saw him lose a lot of time but not P2. It did, however, exaggerate Verstappen’s advantage with a 20-second winning time at the line.
Speaking afterwards, Norris admitted: “I f**ed up. I let Max have a win. You’ve got to be punchy into turn one, I was just a bit too punchy. I wanted to put on a show. That’s why we’re in Vegas. It’s not my best performance out there. It’s still a good result… and still good points.”
Following his second win in Vegas, Verstappen said: “Normally the race is a tough one for us. Today it felt like I could push a bit more… and split the race in half. The next weekends we’l try to win the race. At the end of Abu Dhabi we’ll see where we end up.”
The result had left Verstappen 42 points shy of championship leader Norris and needing a remarkable stroke of luck to claw that back in the final two race weekends.
But the sports lawmakers decided otherwise and long after most people have packed up and left the track it was decreed that Norris and Piastri were removed from the points standings. As a result, George Russell was awarded second and Kimi Antonelli third.
It was here a year ago in Vegas where Verstappen won his fourth title and, 12 months on, and here that this year’s championship went from a mathematical impossible to something more potentially achievable.
Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton, whose tortuous season with Ferrari reached a new low when he qualified last on the grid, clawed back seven places in a chaotic start but he managed to make up just one place after that to sneak up into the points.
Photography by Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images and Stefano Facchin/Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images