"Just over three hours after Lando Norris crossed the line in second place at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, both his car and that of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the results. Wear on the plank -- a strip of composite material on the underside of a Formula 1 car -- was found to be beyond the permitted amount, leaving the stewards with no choice but to strike both from the final classification."
"On Norris' car, the wear was 0.12 millimeters over the limit, and on Piastri's, it was 0.26 mm. To put that in context, the width of the average human hair is between 0.17 to 0.181 mm, raising the possibility that Norris could quite literally miss out on the title by less than a hair's width if Saturday night's race winner, Max Verstappen, beats him to the title by 18 points or less at the end of the year."
"Confirmation of the disqualifications, issued by the stewards at 1:42 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, meant the 30-point lead Norris thought he held over Piastri and the 42-point lead he thought he had on Verstappen were reduced to 24 points to both ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix in seven days' time. While still a healthy margin, it is far less comfortable than it seemed when he stood in front of the Bellagio fountains clutching his second-place trophy."
Both McLaren cars were disqualified after postrace inspections found plank wear beyond the permitted limit; Norris exceeded the limit by 0.12 mm and Piastri by 0.26 mm. The FIA stewards said they strongly held the view the breach was unintentional and that there was not a deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, but the technical rules permit no tolerance for excess plank wear. Plank material is designed to wear to protect the underside and to allow the FIA to monitor compliance. The disqualifications cut Norris's perceived lead to a 24-point margin over both Piastri and Verstappen ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix in a week.
Read at ESPN.com
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