McLaren boss gives instant reaction to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri 'amateur hour' crash

McLaren chief Zak Brown absolved both his drivers of blame for the crash which took both of them out of the United States Grand Prix Sprint race on the first lap. Nico Hulkenberg made contact with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, sending the Aussie spinning into his team-mate Lando Norris.

The Brit was immediately out with terminal damage. Piastri was initially able to continue but swiftly reported suspension damage and was told to stop the car. Reacting to the incident just a few seconds after it happened, Brown told Sky Sports he did not blame his drivers and was critical of Hulkenberg's actions.

He said: "That was terrible. Neither of our drivers were to blame there. 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 blunt in his assessment and said: "I got hit. What else was I going to do? I need to look at it a bit more, but 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. But I need to have another look."

With just a few hours between the Sprint race and qualifying for Sunday's main event, McLaren were left with a major repair job on both cars. Brown had not yet seen the extent of the damage, but said he was confident that their mechanics would be able to get them ready to drive for that session later in the day.

But the double DNF in the Sprint opened up the door for Max Verstappen to take another chunk of points out of Piastri's championship lead. The Dutchman started on pole having got the better of the Mclarens in Sprint qualifying and was in line for a decent haul of points as he battled with George Russell for victory.

However, he was not at all happy with how his Red Bull was feeling as he complained over the radio about a problem he was experiencing. "The ride is completely f***ed on the rear," he told his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase as he fought to keep his car on the road at times.

But Verstappen was given some breathing room by Russell, as the Brit attempted an audacious overtake at the first corner. He tried to go up the inside on the uphill left turn but braked far too late and ended up sending both cars into the run-off area, as the Red Bull racer complained that he had been forced off track by the Mercedes man's move.

The stewards declined to get involved and it was clear anyway that Russell was the one who had come off worse. He locked up his tyres which damaged the grip he was getting, which saw the Brit drop to more than two seconds behind within a couple of laps despite the handling problems Verstappen was experiencing ahead.

And a late safety car, brought out by Lance Stroll crashing into Esteban Ocon, ensured that Verstappen would take the chequered flag in first place and score eight points while the two drivers ahead of him in the championship were empty-handed.