F1 expert and commentator Cameron van den Dungen believes that the shock double disqualification handed to McLaren was a "blessing" for Oscar Piastri's bid to win the 2025 drivers' championship.
Taking zero points home from Las Vegas, Piastri's deficit to his teammate will stay at 24 until Qatar, but Max Verstappen's victory has left the Red Bull driver level with Piastri on 366 points.
"The disqualification overnight, make no mistake, was actually a blessing for Oscar," van den Dungen explained on SENQ Breakfast.
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"He'd lost land to [his teammate], so as a result of the DSQ, although Max Verstappen has come roaring back into contention, the damage that was done yesterday has now been nullified and we are back to where we were before Vegas."
Van den Dungen also said that in the court of "public opinion", Aussies would rather back Verstappen for the title, than Lando Norris, after believing McLaren have "botched the championship" for the young Australian.
"In the court of public opinion, if you went and grabbed the average Aussie on the street and said 'who do you want to win?', there's quite a few people who would say Max Verstappen," he added.
"Because they feel that McLaren have botched this one [the Formula 1 championship]. They have been tinkering at the edges, trying to manipulate the results.
"And they've opened themselves up to Max Verstappen, he was the threat that was always there.
"Lots of people saying, 'if Oscar can't win, I'm backing Max to the hilt.'"
Adding to the McLaren rivalry, former world champion Jenson Button believes the internal drama within the team has cooled, effectively signalling the end of the championship battle between the Australian and Norris.
Hours after the chequered flag on Sunday afternoon (AEDT), both McLaren cars were disqualified following a technical breach stripping Piastri of his initial fourth-place finish in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
After holding the lead in the championship for six months — a run that began with his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix win in April — Piastri has been in a slump, failing to reach the podium in his past six grand prix appearances.
Now, with just two rounds left in the season, the championship has been rocked with Verstappen firmly in the picture for a fifth consecutive title.
Speaking during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Button argued Norris' focus had shifted to the more dominant figure among the chasers: Verstappen.
"I think Lando will be looking at that championship lead and feeling quite comfortable," he said in commentary for Sky Sports.
"But he'll be looking at Max, rather than Oscar, as his main title rival, I'd think."
Norris is on the verge of clinching the title.
With a total of 58 points still available across the remaining two grand prix weekends and the Qatar sprint race, the 24-point gap means Norris needs to out-score both Piastri and Verstappen by just two points next weekend to be crowned champion a race early.
More dramatically, if Norris wins the Qatar Grand Prix, he will win the title.
Speaking after the race but before he was disqualified, Piastri conceded that claiming a maiden world title would require a miraculous fortnight but committed to fighting until the very end.
"Obviously, I need more than [to cut into Norris' lead] now," he said.
"I'm just going into the next two weeks trying to be as prepared as I can and have the best weekends I can.
"It would be nice to get some good results on the board to finish the year.
"The championship picture is what it is. We'll see what I can do."
Starting fifth on Sunday, Piastri fell back to seventh after Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made wheel-to-wheel contact with him at the first corner.
The stewards looked into the contact but concluded no driver was predominantly to blame.
Button sympathised with Piastri's poor start, acknowledging the mountain of challenges the 24-year-old then faced during the grand prix.
"He was on the back foot from the word go, wasn't he?" Button said.
"He needed to get a good launch, he needed to be attacking from the word 'go', but he didn't have that opportunity because he was sideswiped at turn one and pushed wide.
"So, not an easy race for him and stuck in traffic for a lot of it as well.
"He won't be happy with how it ended up, but a lot of it comes down to what happened [in qualifying]."
Piastri attributed his poor result to his initial stroke of bad luck, compounded by his own mistakes and frustrating stints stuck in traffic.
"There's not much to say. I feel like I was one of the only people that actually braked to make the corner [at the start], and I got barged out of the way, and apparently that's fine. It is what it is," Piastri said.
"The rest of the race was eventful after that as well, a few too many mistakes, but from start to finish, it felt like there were some tough moments during the race.
"There were good moments of pace. In clean air, we were really quick, but it was difficult before I got the clean air and difficult after it ran out.
"There were little lock-ups here and there. It's maybe not my favourite circuit of the year, but there're plenty of tracks that aren't my favourite that have been good this year. So, I don't think it was anything to do with that.
"It was a bad start, I took a while to find the rhythm, and then I got stuck behind [Kimi] Antonelli for a long time, which hampered our pace quite a lot."
Updated championship standings
| Num | Driver | Nationality | Team | Points |
| 1 | Lando Norris | British | McLaren | 390 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | Australian | McLaren | 366 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Dutch | Red Bull | 366 |
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