McLaren boss Zak Brown slammed the "amateur" racing at the start of the United States Grand Prix sprint race, after both of his Formula 1 drivers retired on lap one in Austin.
Title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who started second and third respectively, didn’t make it past the opening sector after being hit at Turn 1 causing terminal damage.
It came after Piastri attempted to overtake Norris on the inside of Turn 1’s exit, but his rear left tyre was hit by Nico Hulkenberg, who was sandwiched between the McLaren and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin at the apex.
Piastri was subsequently knocked into Norris, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen eventually winning from pole ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and Carlos Sainz for Williams.
“That was terrible,” Brown told Sky Sports F1. “Neither of our drivers to blame there. Some amateur hour driving. Some drivers up there at the front whacked our two guys.”
When asked if Hulkenberg wasn’t only to blame, Brown said: “I want to see the replay again, but clearly Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was.”
Just a few hours later, however, Brown retracted his comment on Hulkenberg during grand prix qualifying, saying: "I've reviewed it, I think I've changed my view. I can't really put that on Nico.
"In the heat of the moment, obviously pretty bothered what I saw there, a lot of incidents in Turn 1. But I don't think that's on Nico."
It all means Piastri is still leading the championship, 22 points ahead of Norris in second but third-placed Verstappen is now 55 off the top, with race wins in three of the last four weekends.
When asked if anything could have been done differently at Turn 1, Norris told Sky Sports: “No idea, I just got hit, like what else was I meant to do? No, I need to look at it a bit more. I just got hit, I got taken out, so not a lot I could have done.”
Piastri was then asked the same question, to which he replied: “I've not seen the incident from the TV cameras, but obviously I had a pretty good start and we both went pretty deep into Turn 1.
“I tried to cut back and got a hit. So yeah, obviously not a great way to start the day, but I need to have another look.”
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