Bernie Collins ran into Oscar Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard right after qualifying in Las Vegas and got the real story behind Piastri’s P5. Stallard told her the lap was already ruined before Isack Hadjar pulled alongside. Piastri had spotted yellow flags from Charles Leclerc running wide at Turn 12, so he lifted off the throttle early. That lift let Hadjar catch up and appear side-by-side on the TV clip.
According to Stallard, McLaren doesn’t blame Hadjar at all. Piastri had already backed out of the lap the moment he saw the yellows. The team thinks the Australian was just unlucky to hit the flags at the worst possible moment on his final run. Hadjar being next to him was just bad timing, not the reason the lap was aborted.
The incident meant Piastri will start another Grand Prix outside the top three for the fourth race in a row. Lando Norris took pole with a late flyer, while Piastri couldn’t improve. It’s been a tough stretch in qualifying for the Australian, who had taken five poles earlier in 2025 but hasn’t started higher than fourth since Singapore.
The P5 grid slot also keeps the championship momentum firmly with Norris. The Briton has out-qualified and out-scored Piastri in the last six rounds, turning a 34-point deficit after the Dutch GP into a 24-point lead heading into Las Vegas. Norris now has his biggest advantage of the season, matching the 23-point gap he held after the opening race in Australia.
With only Qatar and Abu Dhabi left, Piastri needs a big swing to stay in the title fight. The yellow-flag moment in Vegas was another small piece of bad luck in a run that has seen his championship hopes slip away. McLaren insists the Hadjar incident changed nothing; the damage was already done the second Piastri lifted for Leclerc’s mistake.
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