Lando Norris insists nothing has changed in title fight after Vegas shambles
Lando Norris has insisted nothing has changed in terms of his focus on sealing his first Formula One world championship after both he and his McLaren teammate were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a result which catapulted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen back into contention for the title.McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella however has denied the team took “excessive risks” with their car in Las Vegas.The race in Nevada last weekend was won by Verstappen but Norris took a strong second and Piastri fourth.However, four hours afterwards, following an investigation by the FIA, both were disqualified after the skid blocks on the floor of their cars were found to have been worn down below the 9mm limit defined in the rules.Verstappen had been 49 points behind Norris going into the meeting but with Norris and Piastri stripped of their points he is now only 24 behind, the same deficit as Piastri, as the season enters its penultimate round in Qatar.
Norris can still close out the title here but maintained he felt no extra pressure from Verstappen’s proximity in the title race,“We’ve treated him as a threat the whole year even when he was a few more points behind,” he said,“We treat him as a threat because we know what he’s capable of, we know what Red Bull is capable of so therefore nothing changes now because he’s still the threat he’s always been through the whole year,“There’s no point in trying to treat it any differently because we’ve been doing a good job and I’m very happy with the job we’ve all been doing,We know what areas we need to do better, we know what things we need to improve on.
I don’t feel like I had a bad weekend last weekend or we had a bad result so that’s a good thing.”Norris’s chances did take a blow in Las Vegas however.But for the miscalculation, he would have come to Qatar with a 30-point lead over Piastri and 42 over Verstappen, giving him a much greater chance to seal the title and he admitted it had been a blow.“Of course it hurts,” he said.“There’s a lot of effort that goes into every weekend from everyone, including myself and it certainly made all that effort feel like it disappeared very quickly.
But it’s the same feeling for all of us, the mechanics, the engineers, myself, everyone in McLaren feels let down by what we had as a result.“We’re all disappointed but actually I found it quite easy just to move on and have a few days off and come to this weekend.”Piastri expressed similar feelings but was unequivocal that as things stood he would not be making any sacrifices to help Norris in a fight with Verstappen when asked if he would be prepared to help his teammate.“We’ve had a very brief discussion on it and the answer is no,” he said.“I’m still equal on points with Max and I’ve got a decent shot of still winning it if things go my way so yeah that’s how we’ll play it.
”With a 24-point lead over his two rivals and 58 on the table with a sprint race this weekend, to clinch it here Norris must outscore them both by two points regardless of where he finishes or by one point if he wins the race on Sunday.Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionReacting at length for the first time since Las Vegas the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, stated he did not believe the team had pushed too close to the limit with the ride height of the cars – a factor in improving performance but at the risk of excessive wear to the skid blocks – but that the unexpected bouncing, known as porpoising, of the cars had taken the team by surprise from the very start of the race.“Based on the data we had acquired in practice, we do not believe we took excessive risks in terms of ride height and we also added a safety margin for qualifying and the race, compared to practice, in terms of clearance to the ground,” he said.“The specific cause that led to the situation was the unexpected occurrence of extensive porpoising, inducing large vertical oscillations of the car,” said the Italian.“The level of porpoising was exacerbated by the conditions in which the car operated during the race, and it was not anticipated based on what we had seen in practice and based on the predictions of the car operating window in the race.
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OBR chair ‘mortified’ by budget leak as ex-cybersecurity chief called in to investigate
The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility has said he felt “personally mortified” by the early release of its budget documents and said the former boss of the National Cyber Security Centre will be involved in an investigation into the incident.Richard Hughes said he had written to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the chair of the Treasury select committee, Meg Hillier, to apologise, and launched the inquiry.“I felt personally mortified by what happened. The OBR prides itself on our professionalism. We let people down yesterday and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
US banks announce UK expansion projects hours after budget
Two of Wall Street’s biggest banks have announced substantial expansion plans in the UK, hours after they were spared increased taxes in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.JP Morgan on Thursday revealed plans to build a 3m sq ft tower in Canary Wharf, which will serve as its new UK headquarters and house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff. It is understood the London project will cost £3bn.The US rival Goldman Sachs said it would expand its Birmingham office and hire 500 staff, in a move that would more than double its workforce in the city.Banks dodged a tax raid in the chancellor’s budget, having lobbied hard against a higher levy that lenders argued could force them to curb lending and cancel out the benefits of regulatory reforms meant to spur growth
New rules crack down on high risk loans as Australian property market heats up
A crackdown on risky lending will limit banks’ capacity to extend highly geared mortgages, as the financial regulator launches a pre-emptive strike against the growing excesses of an overheated property market.The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority announced a 20% cap on the share of new lending that banks can do at a debt-to-income ratio above six – a mortgage worth more than six times the borrower’s income.While Jim Chalmers said the move would “help with financial resilience and housing affordability”, the Greens immediately criticised it as insufficient and experts said it would not curb the current rapid rise in lending growth and property prices.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe newly announced restriction lands amid a worsening housing crisis, with a recent report highlighting affordability is now at its worst on record and that a typical household needs to dedicate nearly half of its pre-tax pay to service the average new mortgage.An explosion in lending to landlords has been of particular concern to regulators
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Relief for retailers as business rate changes in budget not as bad as feared
Retailers have breathed a sigh of relief after changes to their business rates bills in the budget were not as bad as feared, after the industry had warned for months that more punitive measures could lead to shop closures and jobs losses.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, on Wednesday revealed plans to permanently reduce business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties – although the discounts are not as generous as those that have been in place since the pandemic. About 750,000 properties in those sectors will see their bills set below the current standard level, with deeper discounts for smaller operators, according to the government.Businesses are still calculating what their ultimate bills will be, but the global tax firm Ryan calculated that there are 3,480 retail properties in England that have the higher rateable value and together would pay an extra £112m in business rates from April 2026. However, the government is providing billions of pounds of “transitional relief” to help those whose bills will increase dramatically next year
Labour is still in a muddle on North Sea oil and gas | Nils Pratley
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