🔗 Share this article

McLaren Formula 1 leaders Zak Brown and Stella attributed competitors for the incident between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the beginning of the United States Grand Prix sprint race.

The Australian driver, ahead of Norris in the championship by twenty-two points, made contact with his fellow McLaren driver after hitting the Hulkenberg.

The crash eliminated both McLaren drivers from the event, along with the Alonso, who was on the inner side of Hulkenberg.

Team Executives Voice Frustration Over Incident

Brown, McLaren Racing's chief executive officer, stated to broadcasters that some of the racing at the front was "amateur hour", adding: "Obviously Nico hit Oscar and he had no reason being where he was."

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella commented: "The reaction is that we are disappointed that we didn't have the possibility to race."

"It's surprising that some racers with a lot of expertise don't act with appropriate caution. Enter the initial turn, make sure you don't damage other drivers and continue."

The team indicated that Stella was pointing to both Hulkenberg and the Aston Martin driver.

Differing Perspectives on the Incident

However, former champion Hill, providing analysis for a sports broadcast, said he thought Piastri had not shown enough awareness of the risks of the opening turn of an F1 race when he chose to cut back to try to overtake Norris.

The Australian had a stronger launch than Norris and initially competed on the outside on the ascending entry to the corner.

But he then cut back in an attempt to get a run on Norris on the exit, only to collide with Hulkenberg.

Racer Comments After the Incident

The McLaren driver said: "Not ideal but I haven't seen what happened, I attempted to cut back on Norris and we were both very far from the apex and then were struck and it propelled me into Lando. A shame."

Norris said: "I just was struck, right? I did nothing wrong. Behind us events unfolded and I just got unlucky and got hit because of it. I am unsure. I need to review a bit more thoroughly. It's more people behind just being a bit reckless and we are the consequence of that."

The Aston Martin driver said: "At one point I thought I was in the right place on the inner side, but some vehicles came very fast from the outer side changing direction and then I was there in the middle."

The Sauber driver, who had qualified a best qualifying fourth, said: "Big frustrations. All the strong performance from yesterday in the trash. Just messy."

"Piastri steered inward pretty forcefully trying to get the undercut and way out of Turn One but I cannot vanish."

"I had Fernando attack on the inner side and I couldn't see him any more. I wanted to provide room for him and then Piastri turned in and the collision was unavoidable."

Post-Crash and McLaren's Reaction

McLaren will analyze the incident with their racers but not until the race weekend. Both vehicles needed significant repairs before qualifying session at 22:00 BST on the weekend.

The team principal said: "Overall displeased but we take it on the chin, we are now focusing on fixing the cars, there is a lot to do and then we will resume the weekend from there."

"Our team holds a competitive place from our competitiveness point of view so I trust we have the possibility to race, race normally and utilize our performance."

"Championship points are the key thing, I don't want to talk about mal-intent, just prudence. A little more prudence would be beneficial for everyone."

Championship Implications

The sprint event was taken by Red Bull's Verstappen, who closed in on both team racers in the standings - he is now fifty-five points behind Piastri and thirty-three adrift of Norris.

Stella said: "The consequence is what the numbers says - we missed out on eight championship points with both drivers, but we concentrate on ourselves. We have a highly capable vehicle and two strong racers. We look forward to just some normal racing."

The Red Bull driver said he was approaching the title race one event at a time.

US GP

October 17-19, with main event from 20:00 BST on the final day

Real-time analysis on BBC Radio 5 Live, additional channels and extra coverage; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app