The rotten luck that has plagued Oscar Piastri in the closing laps of the Formula One season just keeps getting worse and worse for the little Aussie battler.
His rapidly fading chances of winning the world drivers’ championship struck another massive speed bump after he could only qualify fifth fastest for Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Just when he needed a change of fortune after seeing his world championship lead wiped away, the racing gods conspired against him in Sin City.
Already 24 points behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, Piastri was relegated to the third row of the grid after he failed to complete his final flying lap on the Nevada street-circuit when a yellow flag was unfurled then Isack Hadjar got in his way and he forced him off the circuit.
“There were a few things as well at the start of the last lap from an operational point of view,” a frustrated Piastri said.
“I had to mess around with a few things that didn’t quite go how I wanted. I don’t know how much time there was ultimately and there were still three or four corners to go.
“There was more out there that we didn’t get to use. We’ve got a good car underneath us that seems to be working well in all conditions so we can have a strong race and hopefully make up some spots.”
Making matters worse for Piastri, Norris stormed to pole position while Max Verstappen qualified second in his Red Bull. Piastri was comfortably leading them both 12 weeks ago but hasn’t finished ahead of either of them since he won the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the Australian was on course to at least qualify third and did little wrong.
He will also start behind Carlos Sainz, driving for Williams, and last year’s Las Vegas winner George Russell in a Mercedes, on a track where overtaking is always difficult.
“It was a little bit of a shame with Oscar,” Stella said.
“They found the yellow flag in the final attempt which would have been his fastest lap and could have put him in the first position on the grid as well.
“P5 is still a good position. I think we have a competitive car this year. We will try and do our best and finish on the podium with both cars.”
Odds-on to win the world title, Norris timed his run to perfection to claim his seventh pole position of 2025 and his third on the trot after dominating in Mexico and Brazil.
With heavy rain making conditions treacherous in the first two stages of qualifying, the Englishman did just enough to safely get himself through to the top-10 shootout, before putting his foot to the floor and taking pole in Q3 when the drivers swapped their wet weather tyres for intermediates.
“Boy that was stressful, stressful as hell! I didn’t know no one else would get a lap after me,” Norris said.
“It’s so slippery out there. As soon as you hit the kerb a bit wrong, like I did, you snap one way, lose the car the other way. Close to hitting the wall!
“I expected it to be dry but I woke up and saw it was raining and though ‘oh crap this is not going to go well’”
Verstappen is 49 points behind Norris and 25 behind Piastri in the drivers’ standings, with 83 remaining from the last three rounds in Las Vegas, Qatar and Doha.
The Dutchman has all but given up on winning a fifth straight title but said he’ll be rolling the dice and going for broke to try and win in Las Vegas with better conditions expected for the race.
“It was really, really slippery out there. It’s already slippery in the dry and in the wet it’s not fun,” the Dutchman said.
“I like to drive in the wet. This felt more like driving on ice.
“To be on the front row I think is good for us. I’m excited for tomorrow.”
LUCK CONTINUES TO EVADE PIASTRI IN VEGAS
Oscar Piastri just can’t cut a break in Las Vegas.
Desperate for a change of luck after seeing his world championship lead wiped away, the Australian Formula One ace has had a rotten time so far in Sin City.
After showing some encouraging signs in the first of the three hour-long practice sessions, Piastri was unable to post his fastest times in either the second or the third session, through no fault of his own.
Friday’s second session was aborted 20 minutes before the end after marshals spotted a loose manhole cover that needed to be welded shut.
Then Piastri’s final chance of going flat out on a fresh set of soft tyres during Saturday’s final practice was ruined because of a telemetry malfunction on his McLaren, preventing his engineers from receiving any live-time data.
His teammate Lando Norris also had to bring his car back to the garage for the same issue, returning to the pits to be greeted by mechanics wearing protective rubber gloves to avoid any possible electric shocks.
Piastri finished the session way back in 19th place, one ahead of Norris, who was dead last of the 20 drivers.
Last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix winner George Russell topped the timesheets in his Mercedes with Max Verstappen second for Red Bull but no-one was able to set the tricky street circuit alight after an earlier rain shower.
With parts of the circuit still wet, all the drivers began the session using intermediate tyres and only switched to slicks near the end, so their times were much slower than previous years so an unreliable guide to what’s in store during official qualifying, due to take place three hours later.
Foreigner world champion Jenson Button, commentating for Sky TV, said he expected the McLaren drivers would be cursing the missed opportunity to see what they could do at full speed.
“It’s still not nice going into qualifying knowing they had issues going into it,” he said.
Button’s co-commentator Anthony Davidson predicted McLaren would have their work cut out getting on pole position.
“That will be hard to overcome for McLaren now. They will be fighting to get the laps in and feel comfortable,” Davidson said.
“I do feel like the car does have the speed, maybe not to match the likes of Verstappen and Russell, while the Ferraris look good in these conditions as well.”
PIASTRI HITS FRESH TROUBLE AS LOOSE MANHOLE CAUSES LAS VEGAS CHAOS
Australia’s Oscar Piastri was prevented from unleashing his full potential ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix after a loose manhole cover ruined Friday’s final practice session in Sin City.
While Piastri’s teammate, championship leader Lando Norris, set the fastest time in the evening session after sneaking in a flying lap on a new set of soft tyres, Piastri was among a handful of drivers who missed out after marshals spotted a problem with one of the cast iron manholes.
The session was immediately red flagged as the loose cover was inspected then aborted altogether so workers could weld the cover back into place ahead of Saturday’s qualifying then Sunday’s 50-lap race. It is the second time in three years the Las Vegas race has been halted because of the same issue.
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Piastri had been eighth quickest in the first practice session after experimenting with a new rear wing that he changed for the evening. He was expecting to go even faster in the second warm-up before it was cut short.
“FP1 was pretty good, just things to work on. Overall I felt like it was a pretty good session,” he said.
“FP2 I did two laps, so it’s difficult to know exactly where we sit.
“The car has got decent pace but not that many people had a run on the softs. Plenty of positives and things to look through though.”
While McLaren have dominated the season from the outset, wrapping up the constructors’ title two months ago, the papaya team has struggled in the past at the high-speed Las Vegas street circuit because the race is run at night under cold temperatures, meaning there is very low grip.
Asked whether he thinks his McLaren car will perform better this year after engineers introduced some minor upgrades, Piastri said: “I think so yes. Again, it’s difficult to know. We changed a few things into FP2, which seemed to feel pretty good.
“Would I have loved some more laps? Yes. But, the track will continue to change quite a bit for the rest of the weekend. We will see what weather we have and take it from there.”
Norris, who leads Piastri at the head of the title standings by 24 points after winning the last two races in Mexico and Brazil, said he thinks the McLarens can challenge for pole position and the race victory.
“It’s always tricky here. I think we have a better feeling in the car than last year. That was felt on lap one,” he said.
“Some good feelings. Not a lot of running in the end, not really any high fuel running, but the pace is there.
“It’s pretty tight between a lot of people and many people didn’t get their laps in.
“We made some steps forward from FP1 to FP2 and hopefully we can do some more.
“We are fighting for pole.”
Kimi Antonelli was second fastest for Mercedes while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third, just 0.161 behind Norris.
Max Verstappen was overall in the first session then ninth in the second but said the disruptions meant no one knew for sure where they sat in the pecking order.
“It’s OK. Just difficult to understand what to do with the interruptions,” he said.
“It’s a lot colder here and the surface is very slippery, so you cannot compare to other tracks just because it’s low downforce, so it’s not a given you are quick here.”
For Piastri, his major priority is to ensure he finishes ahead of Norris this weekend to give himself a chance of winning the drivers’ championship with only Qatar and Abu Dhabi remaining before the end of the season.
Originally published as Disaster strikes again for Oscar Piastri as Lando Norris claims pole position in Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying
