Lando Norris, McLaren, Circuit of the Americas, 2025

Lando Norris blamed drivers behind him for the first-lap crash which took both McLaren drivers out at the start of the sprint race in Austin.

He was hit by the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri at the first corner shortly after the race started. Piastri in turn had been hit by Nico Hulkenberg, who tangled with Fernando Alonso.

“I don’t know what I’m meant to do in that,” Norris told the official Formula 1 channel after the race. “I just got hit, right? I did nothing wrong.

“Further back things happened and then I just got unlucky and I got hit because of it.”

“It’s more people further back just being a bit careless and we are the consequence of that,” he added.

Piastri said the two McLarens weren’t close to the apex of the corner when he was hit. “I tried to cut back on Lando – I mean, we’re both very far from the apex – and then got hit,” he explained. “And obviously it sent me into Lando. So it’s a shame.”

The stewards took no action over the collision, which ended Alonso’s race as well as that of the McLaren pair. Alonso felt he had been unlucky to retire immediately after the start after qualifying a strong sixth.

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“It felt good,” he said. “At one point in the apex I thought that I was in the right place on the inside of the corner.

“But some cars they came very fast from the outside, switching back and then I was there in the middle. Unfortunately it happened today, as usual to us this year, when we are in the points all these things happen [but] when we’re P14, P15, there is the most boring race ever.”

Hulkenberg said the collision was a “big frustration” after he qualified on the second row of the grid.

“All the good work from yesterday put in the bin,” said the Sauber driver. “Lost another front wing, which is also really annoying. It was just messy.”

He felt Piastri contributed to the collision by turning in sharply ahead of him as he tried to overstake Norris.

“I saw now the replay of it,” said Hulkenberg, “Oscar turned in pretty aggressively, he wanted to get the under-cut and the run on the exit of turn one, but I was there and I can’t just disappear.

“I had Fernando attack me on the inside and I couldn’t see him anymore. I saw him in my peripheral vision that he dived in but then you don’t see a car anymore so I kind of wanted to leave space for him in case he didn’t have it under control and then Oscar turns in and the contact was inevitable.”

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Penalty box

Should the stewards have issued a penalty for the first-lap collision? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.

Should any driver have been penalised for the first-lap collision in the Austin sprint race?

  • No driver should have been penalised (86%)
  • Another driver should have been penalised (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso should have been penalised (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg should have been penalised (5%)
  • Oscar Piastri should have been penalised (5%)
  • Lando Norris should have been penalised (5%)

Total Voters: 22

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