{"id":236660,"date":"2025-10-24T03:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T03:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236660\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T03:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T03:56:10","slug":"oscar-piastri-takes-mclaren-blame-for-us-sprtin-crash-lando-norris-has-penalty-deleted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236660\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri takes McLAren blame for US sprtin crash, Lando Norris has penalty deleted"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren has deemed Oscar Piastri predominantly to blame for causing the first-corner crash in the United States Grand Prix <\/a>sprint last weekend that took both him and teammate Lando Norris out of the race.<\/p>\n

The finding means the team will no longer penalise Norris for his first-lap contact at the Singapore Grand Prix that demoted Piastri from the podium places at the preceding Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

In Austin, Piastri got the better start of the two from third on the grid but found himself on the outside line into the uphill first turn. He chose to cut to the inside of this teammate at the apex but ended up in the path of Nico H\u00fclkenberg, who skittled him into Norris in a pileup that instantly ended both races.<\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Though McLaren came out swinging against H\u00fclkenberg in the immediate aftermath, the team\u2019s usual post-race debrief arrived at Piastri having played the decisive role in the high-profile collision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone through it again \u2014 normally we go through every weekend regardless of what\u2019s happened,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cI think there is a degree of responsibility from my side in the sprint.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PIT TALK: After Austin domination, can Max go all the way? US GP Review<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting this weekend with a clean slate for both of us, so just going out and racing and seeing who can come out on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences on Lando\u2019s side have been removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris was handed an undisclosed penalty \u2014 believed but not confirmed to be a loss of priority exiting pit lane in Q3 \u2014 following his move in Singapore, where he shoved Piastri aside for third place after rebounding off Verstappen in a bold but clumsy move into Turn 3.<\/p>\n

Though he wouldn\u2019t go into detail, Piastri said it was the aggressiveness of his move in Austin that crossed the line and resulted in Norris\u2019s punishment being cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, ultimately it was that,\u201d he confirmed. \u201cThere were a lot of factors involved, but yes, ultimately, that\u2019s what has been decided.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/p>\n

\u2018Crying shame\u2019: F1 icon \u2018blames\u2019 Piastri for McLaren crash despite team\u2019s response \u2014 Pit Talk <\/a><\/p>\n

How title race would look if Piastri was backed as true issue with team orders laid bare<\/a><\/p>\n

The expunging of Norris\u2019s punishment for the Singapore incident is the latest in a growing line of interventions from McLaren management into the title fight in a bid to keep things fair between its two drivers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the second round in a row that the team has changed its mind after the fact.<\/p>\n

In Singapore the team told Piastri that Norris\u2019s move was fair but then decided in review it was worthy of internal sanction.<\/p>\n

In Austin McLaren believed Piastri was foremost a victim in the first-turn incident but now believes he was in the wrong.<\/p>\n

Piastri denied that the iterative approach to McLaren\u2019s internal driving guidelines was heaping unnecessary pressure on him and Norris.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot necessarily, no,\u201d he said. \u201cI think for us it\u2019s pretty clear what those rules are: don\u2019t crash into each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think regardless of what scenario you\u2019re in, that\u2019s kind of how you\u2019re expected to race as teammates, so I don\u2019t think that adds any pressure into the scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri and Norris collide at turn one | 02:31<\/p>\n

McLAREN WALKS BACK POST-SPRINT CRITICISM<\/p>\n

Apportioning blame to Piastri marks a long climb-down from the team\u2019s initial position that H\u00fclkenberg was to blame for causing the crash.<\/p>\n

H\u00fclkenberg had qualified a lofty fourth and was attempting to defend the place at the first turn from Fernando Alonso, who was on his inside after launching strongly from sixth.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard\u2019s position left the German with nowhere to go but into the side of Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was terrible,\u201d McLaren CEO Zak Brown told Sky Sports during the sprint. \u201cNeither of our drivers to blame there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome amateur-hour driving by some drivers up there at the front whacked out two guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly Nico Hulkenberg drove into Oscar, and he had no business being where he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team principal Andrea Stella doubled down after the sprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s surprising that some drivers with a lot of experience don\u2019t act with just more prudence,\u201d he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust more prudence \u2014 go through the first corner, make sure you don\u2019t damage competitors and then carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their analysis surprised most observers, who saw H\u00fclkenberg as blameless in a classic Austin first-turn pileup that even the stewards deemed unworthy of investigation.<\/p>\n

But speaking after the weekend, Sauber principal Jonathan Wheatley revealed Brown had almost immediately come to the same conclusion as the rest of the paddock.<\/p>\n

\u201cZak sent me an apology really quickly afterwards,\u201d Wheatley said, per Autosport. \u201cHe apologised personally to Nico.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a passionate sport. I love the passion. You\u2019re fighting for a world championship, and two cars get taken out in the first corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to think that it\u2019s somebody else\u2019s fault sometimes and you react with passion. I think he probably did that to Sky TV \u2014 the heat of the moment and the emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve known Zak a really long time. He\u2019s a racer. We\u2019re all racers, and we sorted it out afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max closes in on Oscar after another win | 02:32<\/p>\n

PIASTRI HINTS AT MINOR CAR PROBLEMS IN AUSTIN<\/p>\n

While the first-lap crash was an obvious low point in Piastri\u2019s weekend, the round overall offered him little more.<\/p>\n

With a stubborn 0.3-second deficit to Norris, he qualified sixth on the grid and finished an anonymous fifth, allowing both his teammate, who finished second, and Verstappen, who dominated the race, to close their deficits to his title lead.<\/p>\n

Fifth was Piastri\u2019s lowest finish of the season behind only his ninth at the Australian Grand Prix after spinning off the road in the wet. Only that race and his failure to finish in Azerbaijan rank as worse weekends.<\/p>\n

It was such an out-of-sorts performance that McLaren said after the race that it would investigate whether Piastri\u2019s car had any hidden problems hampering his speed.<\/p>\n

Piastri suggested that investigation found some discrepancies, though he denied they would have revolutionised his weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there were some things that were maybe not as good as they could have been, but there was nothing drastically wrong with the car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there were a few things in terms of how the weekend played out and how the race panned out that were different to our expectations from a few different angles, but while the car maybe wasn\u2019t ideal, if we could do the weekend again, we\u2019d probably do a few things a little bit differently but we wouldn\u2019t be changing anything major.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead he said his poor weekend was down to the particular demands of the Circuit of the Americas, which has been a bogey track for the Australian throughout his Formula 1 career, and that he expected to rediscover his usual speed this weekend in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very COTA-specific,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just a messy weekend with everything that went, so there\u2019s an element of that hampering things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think the analysis we\u2019ve done has highlighted that there were a lot of things specific to Austin, so I\u2019m not really concerned that those problems will still persist. Obviously I\u2019m hoping that this weekend is a bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Coast 500 kicks off Finals series | 01:13<\/p>\n

PIASTRI DENIES VERSTAPPEN PRESSURE<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s scoreless sprint contributed to the latest chapter of Verstappen\u2019s herculean championship comeback, with the Dutchman cutting his deficit by 23 points over the Austin weekend.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is now just 40 points behind Piastri with five rounds remaining, including two more sprints.<\/p>\n

The reigning champion has been the sport\u2019s form man since the mid-season break. He\u2019s won three of five grands prix and scored 119 points from a maximum of 133 points.<\/p>\n

The run of results has seen him slash his season-high deficit of 104 points by 64 points in just four rounds. If he were to continue on that same trajectory, he would take the title lead at the penultimate round in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Norris has also shrunk his deficit in the last four rounds, from 34 points after his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix to just 14 points after Austin.<\/p>\n

Piastri has led the title standings for 15 rounds, dating back to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but denied that Verstappen\u2019s rapid closing of the gap was unsettling him and the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really something I think about, no,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he\u2019s been very consistent in the last few weekends and been strong as well, there\u2019s no denying that, but for me there\u2019s no benefit in worrying about that or focusing on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s going to help me win this championship is trying to get the most out of myself, the most out of the car, the most out of the team around me, and worrying about anyone else on the grid is not focusing on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me the focus has always been on tyring to go as fast as I can and getting the most out of every weekend, which in some of the weekends we have and some of them we definitely haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if I do a good enough job of getting on top of that every weekend, it doesn\u2019t really matter what the picture looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s there, he\u2019s in the fight, but ultimately that doesn\u2019t change how I\u2019m going to approach my racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull Racing\u2019s turnaround means McLaren is no longer sure of the form guide approaching the final five rounds, even if the team thinks the competition between the two cars would have been closer in Austin had Charles Leclerc not jumped Norris for second off the line, compromising the Briton\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Despite the changing momentum, Piastri said he\u2019d prefer to be defending his title lead than chasing a leader in the closing stages of the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone likes a good underdog story, and trying to come back is sometimes a bit easier, but I\u2019d rather have the championship lead than be in any other spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said I enjoy that because it means you\u2019re doing something right, and I think through the course of the season we have done a lot of things right, and there are some things we can still do even better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the form card and where we think we will be strong, and where we thought others would be strong, has not always lined up perfectly, which has often been the case in this generation of cars, but I think clearly over the last few race weekends Red Bull and Max have certainly found consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re going to be a threat again this weekend, and we\u2019ll try our best to get the most out of our car and see where we end up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren has deemed Oscar Piastri predominantly to blame for causing the first-corner crash in the United States Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[141863,2095,13273,1724,64,14017,63,689,141204,961,100312,2791,31300,13275,63702,141872,817,845,13213,141868,141869,33112,141864,141858,813,816,2105,2485,14211,141856,141859,7983,1737,137000,825,2184,23956,13756,141870,2041,2067,677,141866,73239,141861,25586,141867,141873,16260,701,33114,141865,141860,141871,942,2643,2812,85,141857,13773,3370,137976,21760,21784,43342,141862,2614,12000,2086,9657],"class_list":["post-236660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-amateur-hour-driving","tag-america","tag-andrea-stella","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-austin","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","tag-azerbaijan","tag-bogey-track","tag-central-america","tag-championship-battle","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-clean-slate","tag-driving-guidelines","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-finals-series","tag-first-corner-crash","tag-first-lap-contact","tag-first-lap-crash","tag-first-turn-incident","tag-first-turn-pileup","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-grands-prix","tag-herculean-championship-comeback","tag-initial-position","tag-jonathan-wheatley","tag-lando-norris","tag-max-closes","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-mid-season-break","tag-minor-car-problems","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-out-of-sorts-performance","tag-penultimate-round","tag-picture-looks","tag-pit-lane","tag-podium-places","tag-post-singapore-penalty","tag-qatar","tag-queensland","tag-race-weekends","tag-rapid-closing","tag-scoreless-sprint","tag-season-high-deficit","tag-singapore","tag-sky-sports","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-sports","tag-sprint-wipeout","tag-team-principal","tag-texas","tag-things-fair","tag-title-fight","tag-title-lead","tag-title-standings","tag-underdog-story","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-western-asia","tag-world-championship","tag-zak-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}