Max Verstappen gifted route back into F1 title race as McLarens crash out at US Grand Prix

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both crashed out at the first corner of the US Grand Prix Sprint race and Max Verstappen took full advantage to cut McLaren’s F1 championship lead

McLaren boss Zak Brown blasted the “amateur hour” antics of a rival driver after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were both taken out of yesterday’s Sprint race at the first corner. Piastri started third behind his team-mate but was punted into the other McLaren as he tried to cut back up the inside, only to be smashed into by Nico Hulkenberg.

It meant Max Verstappen could cut the gap between him and Piastri in the championship by eight more points – a chance he was very happy to take. But while the Dutchman was delighted, American McLaren chief Brown was scathing in his criticism of Sauber star Hulkenberg.

“That was terrible. Neither of our drivers were to blame there,” he said moments after the crash. That was some amateur hour driving from some of the drivers up there at the front and wiped our two guys. I want to see the replay again but, clearly, Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was and went into his left-rear tyre.”

Norris was a complete passenger and said he had “no idea” what he could have done differently to avoid being taken out. He said: “I got hit. What else was I going to do? I got taken out so not a lot I could have done.”

And Piastri added: “I’ve not seen the incident from the TV cameras, but I had a pretty good start and we’ve both gone deep into turn one. I tried to cut back [on Norris] and got hit [by Hulkenberg], so obviously not a great way to start the day.”

Hulkenberg was able to continue but Fernando Alonso was the third casualty of that first-corner melee. But the stewards decided to take no action against any driver, happy that it was the sort of incident that can happen at the first corner of a race.

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Verstappen still had work to do as he struggled for pace after the safety car peeled back into the pits and had the Mercedes of George Russell on his gearbox. The Brit attempted an audacious lunge at one point but locked his tyres and both cars went off track but, crucially, did not make contact.

Russell said: “I knew you don’t get many opportunities with Max, so I saw half a chance and sent it. I was too far behind, but I’m glad I gave it a go. P2 for sure was better than we could have expected, so some decent points.”

Verstappen found the grip he needed after that and his victory was confirmed when Lance Stroll smashed into the Haas of Esteban Ocon, ensuring the Sprint would end behind the safety car. The winner said: “It took a few laps after the safety car for us to have decent pace, so we need to figure out what was going on there. We won, which is the most important thing.

“For [today], I think we need to be a bit better in race trim to beat the McLarens, because we haven’t seen anything of them.” Carlos Sainz rounded off the top three while Lewis Hamilton also benefitted from the chaos ahead to rise from eighth on the grid to finish fourth.