Red Bull's Max Verstappen secured pole position for the United States Grand Prixby winning the sprint race on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
The victory also helped Verstappen close the gap on McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the Drivers' Championship.
The Dutchman is now 55 points behind Piastri and 33 behind Norris.
McLaren duo crash out in disastrous start
McLaren's teammates suffered a nightmare start when Piastri clipped Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg shortly after the lights went out.
The collision occurred as Piastri attempted a cutback on Norris, but his left rear wheel caught Hülkenberg's right front, sending the Sauber back onto the track and into Norris's car.
The incident was exactly what McLaren's management had hoped to avoid, especially after the pair made light contact at the Singapore Grand Prix.
The team has maintained throughout the season that its drivers are free to race each other, provided they avoid collisions.
'I've not seen the incident from the TV cameras, but I obviously had a pretty good start,' Piastri told Sky Sports.
'We both went pretty deep into Turn One. I tried to cut back and got a hit. Not a great way to start the day. I need to have another look.'
Norris added: 'Just got hit, right? I did nothing wrong. Further back things happened and I just got unlucky and got hit because of it.'
McLaren bosses blame rivals for collision
Team principals Andrea Stella and Zak Brown blamed rival drivers for the crash that ended both of their cars' sprints.
'Clearly Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was,' Brown told Sky Sports, describing some of the driving at the front as 'amateur hour'.
'It's surprising that some drivers with a lot of experience don't act with prudence. Go to the first corner, make sure you don't damage competitors and carry on,' added Stella.
Alongside Hülkenberg, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was also caught up in the chaos involving Piastri and Norris.
'At one point I thought I was in the right place on the inside, but some cars came very fast from the outside switching back and then I was there in the middle,' said Alonso.
Hülkenberg, who had qualified a season-best fourth, expressed frustration after the incident:
'Oscar turned in pretty aggressively trying to get the undercut and exit of Turn One, but I can't just disappear,' he said.
'I had Fernando attack on the inside and I couldn't see him any more. I wanted to leave space for him and then Oscar turned in and the contact was inevitable.'
Verstappen explains missed final lap
Although Verstappen claimed the sprint win, he missed the chance to set a second flying lap in Q3 due to unexpected traffic.
The four-time world champion said several drivers created 10–12 second gaps ahead of him, preventing him from crossing the line in time.
'I was just a bit disappointed at what was going on ahead. Just a lot of people were leaving 10–12 second gaps, which you can't really anticipate. We missed out by a couple of seconds, which is not ideal, but luckily it didn't matter,' Verstappen explained.
His 1m32.510s effort proved enough to take the win, as he now looks to follow up with another strong result in Sunday's Grand Prix to further close the gap to Norris and Piastri in the Drivers' Championship.
