Piastri labels Norris clash a racing incident as Verstappen gains in Austin

Oscar Piastri insisted his opening-lap collision with teammate and rubric rival Lando Norris successful Austin’s sprint was “a racing incident.” Battling for 2nd into Turn 1 astatine the Circuit of the Americas, Piastri moved crossed Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg portion switching backmost to walk Norris, clipped the Sauber, and ricocheted into his teammate. It was McLaren’s 2nd intra-team tangle successful arsenic galore events aft Singapore, wherever the squad placed work connected Norris and imposed internal, sporting “repercussions.”

Piastri pushed backmost connected assigning fault. “I deliberation for me, it’s a racing incident,” helium told reporters. “I was a agelong mode distant from the apex… could I person done thing a spot different? Maybe… but that antithetic happening would person been to perchance fto 2 oregon 3 cars spell by.” He added connected TV: “Lando and I were a agelong mode distant from the apex… if I’d person known it was three-wide down maine possibly I would person done thing a small spot different.”

Hülkenberg countered: “I saw present a replay of Oscar, helium turned successful beauteous aggressively wanting to get the undercut… I was benignant of determination and can’t conscionable disappear.”

Title representation and squad response

The clash opened the doorway for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to triumph the sprint and trim Piastri’s title pb to 55 points. Verstappen starts Sunday’s expansive prix from pole, up of Norris, with Piastri sixth. Norris avoided blasted talk: “It volition beryllium reviewed… I conscionable person to ace connected and bash my ain thing.”

McLaren squad main Andrea Stella said post-sprint discussions were astir “resetting” earlier qualifying, with a fuller reappraisal to travel nether the team’s racing framework. He aboriginal reiterated his presumption that “a spot much prudence from drivers that travel with a batch of experience” would person helped—an evident motion toward Hülkenberg.

Form cheque heading into Sunday

After a stellar archetypal fractional capped by triumph successful the Netherlands, Piastri admitted Austin has been a struggle. “It’s not been truthful overmuch of overdriving, it’s conscionable that I haven’t felt comfy with the car,” helium said, disputing that Singapore signaled a dip. With 7 wins to Norris’s five—and 14 podiums each—McLaren’s pairing remains tightly matched arsenic the season’s last agelong begins.