With McLaren’s handling of the Drivers’ Championship battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris already in the spotlight, disaster struck as the pair both retired from Saturday’s United States Grand Prix Sprint after another first-lap collision.

Almost two weeks on from Norris making contact with Piastri during an opening-lap overtake at the Singapore Grand Prix, an incident which the Brit would later be sanctioned for by the team, the roles were somewhat reversed in Austin.

Piastri, who leads Norris by 22 points at the top of the standings, attempted to cut back underneath and overtake his team-mate at the first corner of the Circuit of The Americas, but found Nico Hulkenberg in his path, suffering a heavy collision with Sauber that sent the McLaren flying into his team-mate, leaving both papaya cars with terminal damage.

Pole-sitter Max Verstappen cruised to victory for Red Bull in a result that brings him within 55 points of Piastri and just 33 points back from Norris going into Sunday’s full-length race in Texas.

It was a nightmare scenario for McLaren, gifting Verstappen a decent points gain in a race that he likely would have struggled to keep them behind in had they made it through the first corner.

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella both appeared to blame Hulkenberg, rather than either of their own drivers, for the crash, but it’s worth noting that they also initially absolved Norris of any wrongdoing in Singapore.

Former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick disagreed, suggesting that Piastri had made “a bad judgement call”, while her fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok said McLaren are in a “tricky” situation after setting a “precedent” by punishing Norris for what occurred in Singapore.

McLaren bosses blame Hulkenberg

There were similarities to the Singapore incident in that on that occasion, Norris had tried to overtake Piastri up the inside and made contact with Verstappen ahead of them, which sent him sideways into his team-mate.

On this occasion, Piastri was attempting to pass Norris but found Hulkenberg’s Sauber on his inside, making much more significant contact that almost flipped his car over and sent it thudding into Norris.

In both situations, it’s fair to assume that if there hadn’t been any other cars in the vicinity, contact between the McLarens would have been avoided.

However, while no one suggested Verstappen was to blame in Singapore, in Austin, Brown and Stella were highly critical of Hulkenberg, who was battling Fernando Alonso up the inside of Turn 1.

Brown, speaking to Sky Sports F1 from the McLaren pit wall while the Sprint was still running, said: “That was terrible. Neither of our drivers to blame there.

“That’s some amateur-hour driving by some drivers up there at the front, (they) wacked out two guys.

“I want to see the replay again but clearly Nico Hulkenberg drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was, he went into his left-rear tyre.”

Stella, speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Sprint had concluded, added: “It’s surprising that some drivers with a lot of experience don’t act with more prudence – go to the first corner, make sure you don’t damage competitors then carry on.”

Piastri and Norris both gave brief interviews after the Sprint but ultimately concluded they would need to look at replays of the incident to be able to offer a more informed opinion. Both will speak to the media again after qualifying later on Saturday.

‘It was avoidable’ – Patrick criticises Piastri

Sky Sports F1’s Patrick argued that Piastri could have yielded to Norris and avoided the risk he took by attempting to cut back beneath his team-mate.

“We were watching this at speed and it both looked like they slowed down so much and Oscar was being really careful,” Patrick said.

“This is what can happen sometimes if you are trying to stay away from each other so much and doing something outside of your norm of possibly racing around the outside and going at it that way.

“Inside the cockpit, it’s such a different view from what we see but everyone is racing into the first corner with as much speed as possible and he slowed up any extra.

“It was avoidable. He could have fallen in line behind Lando and carried on. Instead, he got invited into that gap. It was a bad judgement call.”

Do McLaren need to reverse ‘repercussions’?

The biggest story of the weekend before the Sprint collision had been McLaren’s decision to reveal Norris had been sanctioned for the Singapore incident but then refuse to share exactly what advantage they were giving to Piastri.

Interviews with the drivers and team bosses had revealed that Norris’ punishment was a sporting penalty and that it might be implemented in the five remaining rounds after the United States Grand Prix.

Brown’s insistence that the measures would have “zero interference” with racing on a Sunday has led many to assume the ruling is giving Piastri an advantage in qualifying, perhaps allowing him to choose whether he would prefer to take to the track before or after Norris for the most crucial runs.

Former F1 world champion Jenson Button and his fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Chandhok debated after Saturday’s Sprint whether McLaren now needed to remove or reverse the sanctions applied to Norris.

Chandhok said: “In my opinion, I wouldn’t have done anything here but I wouldn’t have done anything for Singapore because that was also a lap 1 racing incident.

“The tricky thing they have got themselves into internally is by doing what they did after Singapore and publicly declaring it, it’s set a precedent.”

Button added: “If I was a team principal, no because it’s one of those things. From what Zak has said so far, other drivers have driven into Oscar.

“From a racing driver’s point of view, it was more on Oscar. Lando’s not even in this conversation. He was just unlucky to be there.”

Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP schedule

Sunday October 19
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 is in North America for the United States Grand Prix in Austin, live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event with Sunday’s race at 8pm (build-up from 6.30pm). Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime