Verstappen wins in Austin
Piastri and Norris crash: McLaren experiences sprint debacle
Updated 10/18/2025 – 7:57 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
A fatal accident occurred right at the start of the sprint race in the USA. Involved: the two McLarens – and the only German in the field. The world champion benefits.
Max Verstappen was able to shorten the gap to the two World Championship leaders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris before the US Grand Prix. The reigning world champion won the sprint race on Saturday afternoon local time in Austin and was able to reduce the gap to the two McLaren drivers by eight points – also because the two competitors experienced a real debacle: in a mass crash right at the start, in which the German Nico Hülkenberg was also involved, both drivers from the British racing team were eliminated.
Before the race on Sunday, Verstappen is still 55 points behind championship leader Piastri, 33 behind Norris.
The crash, however, deprived Hülkenberg of his best chance of scoring points in weeks: the Sauber driver started from fourth place after a strong qualifying, and in the end the German ended up in 13th place. Behind Verstappen, George Russell in the Mercedes and Carlos Sainz in the Williams took second and third place.
In the first few meters, which lead steeply uphill on the Circuit of the Americas, Verstappen defended his pole position. Behind him, a chain reaction occurred in the sharp first corner: Piastri wanted to pass Norris on the inside, but Hülkenberg was already there, who also had no more room to maneuver – Fernando Alonso entered the corner right next to him.
Both McLarens were then too damaged to continue the race. With a view to qualifying on Saturday evening (from 11 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online), the garages of the two title candidates had a lot to do. “We have to look at the damage, but actually it should be relatively easy to repair,” said McLaren boss Zak Brown on Sky.
Neither pilot was to blame for this “racing accident,” said Brown. It was now the second time in a row that Piastri and Norris got in each other’s way; most recently there was a – much less dramatic – contact in Singapore.