Lando Norris has shared his thoughts on the opening-lap collision with Oscar Piastri during the Sprint at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin. The British driver now faces the challenge of recovering lost ground in Sunday’s race, where he still has an opportunity to gain valuable points on his teammate.
McLaren suffers a painful double zero
Saturday’s Sprint at Austin could have serious implications for the championship fight. McLaren suffered the dreaded double zero after a collision between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at Turn 1, while Max Verstappen claimed pole position, another mini-pole for the Sprint, and ultimately the Sprint victory — earning eight additional points over both McLaren drivers.
The four-time world champion will line up as the favourite for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, especially with Oscar Piastri starting further down the order and Lando Norris unable to afford major risks into Turn 1 after the chaos that took him out the previous day. The British driver will need to keep an eye not only on Max Verstappen ahead but also on the mirrors to avoid more surprises at the start.
Norris’s reaction to the incident
“I don’t know what I could have done differently in that situation,” said Lando Norris after the Sprint. “I was simply hit — I didn’t do anything wrong. The fault lies with the car behind; it was a bit reckless, and we paid the price for it.”
Lando Norris’s stance is perfectly in line with that of Oscar Piastri and the entire McLaren team. However, McLaren CEO Zak Brown slightly stepped back after his initial reaction. The American executive had called Nico Hülkenberg — the driver involved in the contact with the championship leader — an “amateur driver,” a remark he later admitted regretting only a few hours after making it.
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