Autobayng News Team
Max Verstappen said the Las Vegas Grand Prix was already a good result for him before both his championship rivals were disqualified.
However the Red Bull driver said he would prefer to be closer to them in the championship at this stage in the season.
Verstappen’s win originally left him 42 points behind Lando Norris and 12 behind Oscar Piastri. However after both McLarens were disqualified for excessive plank wear in Las Vegas, Verstappen is now level with Piastri and 24 points behind Norris.
Nonetheless Verstappen said he feels “exactly the same as last week” going into the penultimate round of the championship in Losail. “Yes, it’s closer,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “Ideally I would have loved to have it a bit closer, but it’s still open.”
He was 104 points off the championship lead seven rounds ago. Verstappen said the progress he has made is “something that I definitely wouldn’t have expected.”
“But here we are. We have had a very strong end to the season. I’m much more happy with that.
“I guess also we have been helped a little bit with certain things: results, crashes, disqualifications, so we should not forget that, I guess. But I’m happy.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“Naturally, of course I would have liked a bit of a better first half but that’s something that you can’t change anymore. So we’ll just try to focus on the last two races and try to do the best we can.”
Verstappen does not believe McLaren were disqualified because of a deliberate attempt to break the rules. He suspects the team simply ran its cars too low to the ground.
“As a team you always try to run it to the limit but it is possible that sometimes you might get it wrong,” he said, adding he did not suspect McLaren’s problem during the race.
“After the race you look back at footage and you see them sparking maybe a little bit more than others. But honestly, these kind of things are so hard to get right. Of course everyone will always try to push it to the limit and I guess sometimes you can go over that limit.
“But from our side we were just very happy with the win. For us that was already a really good result in Vegas.
“Now, two races to go. Of course the gap got a bit smaller and from a team’s perspective from our side we’ll just try to do everything we can to try and stay in that fight ’til the end.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Qatar Grand Prix
- Piastri’s 104-point lead over Verstappen was “overturned quicker than I thought”
- Verstappen surprised to slash points gap but “would love to have it a bit closer”
- F1’s racing guidelines have “created more problems than solutions” – Sainz
- ‘Not looking forward to 2026’ comment was made in ‘heat of frustration’ – Hamilton
- Aston Martin ‘don’t need more people in management’ after Newey move – Alonso
