🔗 Share this article

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

The Australian driver, ahead of his teammate in the championship by 22 points, bounced into his team-mate after making contact with Sauber's Hulkenberg.

The incident took both McLaren drivers from the race, along with the Alonso, who was on the inside of Hulkenberg.

Team Executives Express Disappointment Over Incident

Zak Brown, McLaren Racing's chief executive officer, stated to Sky Sports that some of the driving at the front was "inexperienced", adding: "Obviously Hulkenberg made contact with Oscar and he had no reason being where he was."

McLaren F1 boss Stella commented: "The reaction is that we are displeased that we were denied the possibility to compete."

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

McLaren suggested that Stella was pointing to both the Sauber driver and Alonso.

Differing Perspectives on the Incident

However, former champion Hill, commentating for BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, said he thought Piastri had not shown enough awareness of the risks of the first corner of an Formula 1 event when he decided to cut back to try to overtake his teammate.

Piastri had a better start than Norris and initially challenged on the outside on the uphill entry to the turn.

However he then moved inside in an effort to get a run on Norris on the way out, only to make contact with Hulkenberg.

Driver Reactions After the Collision

Piastri said: "Less than perfect but I haven't seen what happened, I tried to cut back on Norris and we were both quite distant from the apex and then got a hit and it sent me into Lando. Unfortunate."

Norris said: "I just was struck, right? I did nothing wrong. Behind us things happened and I just was unfortunate and got hit because of it. I am unsure. I need to look a bit more carefully. It's more drivers behind just being a bit careless and we are the result of that."

Alonso said: "At one point I thought I was in the correct position on the inner side, but some vehicles came very fast from the outer side switching back and then I was there in the center."

Hulkenberg, who had qualified a best qualifying fourth place, said: "Major disappointment. All the strong performance from yesterday in the trash. Just messy."

"Oscar turned in pretty forcefully trying to get the inside line and way out of Turn One but I cannot vanish."

"I had Alonso attack on the inner side and I was unable to see him any more. I wanted to leave space for him and then Piastri turned in and the contact was inevitable."

Post-Crash and McLaren's Reaction

McLaren will review the incident with their racers but only after the race weekend. Both vehicles needed extensive work before grand prix qualifying at 10 PM BST on Saturday.

The team principal said: "Overall displeased but we accept it, we are now concentrating on repairing the cars, there is a lot to do and then we will resume the event from there."

"We are in a competitive place from our performance point of view so I trust we have the possibility to compete, compete fairly and utilize our performance."

"The points are the key thing, I prefer not to talk about bad intentions, just caution. A little more prudence would be good for everyone."

Championship Implications

The race was taken by the Verstappen, who closed in on both McLaren drivers in the championship - he is now fifty-five points behind Piastri and thirty-three adrift of the Briton.

The team boss said: "The implication is what the numbers show - we missed out on eight points with both drivers, but we concentrate on ourselves. We have a very competitive vehicle and two strong racers. We look forward to just some standard competition."

Verstappen said he was approaching the championship race by race.

United States Grand Prix

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

Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live, additional channels and extra coverage; real-time updates on BBC Sport website and mobile application