Did the door for Max Verstappen to win a fifth-straight title just open a bit wider?
Formula 1 Sprint Races are only worth a maximum of eight championship points, but, boy, can they have some massive championship implications. McLaren learned this the hard way early Saturday afternoon at Circuit of the Americas, and it didn’t take more than one turn.
As it stands, the championship battle is a three-horse race between current leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris of McLaren, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who, while still a long shot, is the highest scorer since the summer break.
The Dutchman qualified on pole for the Sprint just ahead of Norris and Piastri in P2 and P3, respectively.
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But before they could get on with the 19-lap race, they had to get through COTA’s notorious opening corner: an uphill, mile-wide hairpin that seems to be a magnet for broken bits of carbon fiber.
The lights went out, and Piastri had a phenomenal jump. It looked like he outdragged Norris to the breaking zone, but Norris got a better entry into the corner.
No problem for Piastri, though. He could just pull the ol’ switcheroo on Norris with a tighter line through the exit, and second place was as good as his.
The only problem was that he didn’t account for the presence of Niko Hulkenberg’s Sauber to his inside.
Are you kidding me?
Both McLarens retired, as did Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, while several other cars sustained serious damage.
Oscar Piastri crashes into his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. This is about as bad as it gets in a Sprint Race… or any race, for that matter. (Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images)
It’s hard to chalk that up to anything but a racing incident, but it all started with Piastri trying to make a move that just wasn’t there.
That’s another mistake for Piastri over the last few race weekends after a horror show in Baku and another first-lap incident with Norris following a controversial dust-up in Singapore.
The latter led to “repercussions” that the team has been weirdly keeping to themselves.
I can’t imagine that causing a chain reaction like that would be part of those.
This moment is massive for the championship because Verstappen managed to hold on to the lead and won the Sprint. That gives him 8 points, and if he wins the race tomorrow, he’ll leave Austin with at least a 15-point swing in his favor.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that McLaren is cracking under the pressure of a potential Drivers’ Championship after locking up the Constructors’ title in Singapore… but I’m not really sure how to end that sentence because the mistakes and misfortune really are piling up.
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