Who said what? Norris and Piastri collision aftermath

From pole, Max made a clean getaway and led into Turn 1, but behind him, Piastri was clipped by Nico Hülkenberg’s Kick Sauber and spun into Norris, ending the Briton’s race immediately. Piastri tried to continue but the damage proved too severe, forcing the Australian to retire soon after.

Norris later expressed frustration, suggesting the collision stemmed from careless driving further down the order: “What was I meant to do in that... I just got hit. I did nothing wrong. Further back, things happened, and I just got unlucky and I got hit because of it. I don’t know, I need to look a bit more carefully. It’s more people further back just being a bit careless, and we are the consequence of that.”

Piastri shared a similar view, admitting he had not yet seen a full replay: “It’s obviously not ideal, but I actually haven’t seen what happened yet. I tried to cut back on Lando, we were both very far from the apex and then got a hit, and he obviously sent me into Lando, so a shame.”

The double DNF marked McLaren’s first pointless Sprint since Baku, a blow in both title fights. Piastri still leads the Drivers’ Championship on 336 points, with Norris second on 314. Sprint winner Verstappen has now cut the deficit to 55 points heading into Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Team principal Andrea Stella voiced his disappointment when speaking to Sky Sports F1: “The reaction is we are disappointed we didn’t have the possibility to race. The first corner incident took both cars out of the race. 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.

"Overall, disappointed but we take it on the chin. We will focus on repairing the cars and there’s a lot to do. Then we will reset the weekend from there. We are in a strong position from a competitiveness point of view. We hope we have the possibility to race normally and capitalise on our performance.”

Stella added that McLaren’s focus now shifts to recovery for Sunday’s main event: “The points are the most important thing. I don’t talk about malintent, just prudence, especially when you’re in such a position which was very good for some of these experienced drivers. A bit more prudence would have been good for everyone.”

He concluded: “The implication is what the mathematics say. We lost eight points for both drivers but we focus on ourselves. We know if we can race and race normally, we have a very competitive car, two strong drivers and the scores will take care of themselves. We look forward to some normal racing.”

McLaren will now aim to regroup for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, where both drivers will be eager to make amends after a costly Sprint that handed Verstappen crucial ground in the title chase.