McLaren disaster and Max Verstappen victory in the United States sprint

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris eliminated each other and the Dutchman took advantage to win the short race and gain eight points in the fight for the title.

And Troy burned just in the armies of McLaren! It was expected, it was known, it was intuited. The closer the end of the World Championship approached and the papaya boys continued to fight hand in hand for the drivers’ World Championship, the chance of a clash between the two grew exponentially. There was a friction in Singapore, without consequences for the MCL39, but which raised the temperature in the internal duel. Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, and Andrea Stella, director, gathered their charges a day after the touch, blamed Lando Norris for the crash and tightened the pegs of the rules: no touch. But the sprint of the United States GP arrived, date 19, and everything exploded.

The start of the short 19-lap race blew up the forced peace that Stella and Brown tried to impose with their strange papaya rulesthose with which Oscar Piastri was forced to give Norris’s place back in Monza because the Englishman’s tire nut got stuck during the pit stop. But that pacification exploded in the first corner of Austin. Norris started second and could do nothing to attack Max Verstappen, who took pole. Piastri, from third place, tried to go on the outside and at the apex of turn one he changed the radius to go on the inside. The Australian threw himself as if there was no one else on the asphalt, but Nico Hülkenberg was there. The McLaren hooked up with the Sabuer and directly flew over Norris’s MCL39. Result: both out.

Speaking to Sky, the papaya boys, including Piastri (the clear culprit) tried to kick her outside: “I haven’t seen the incident on camera, but I obviously made a good start. We both got pretty deep into the first corner. I tried to cut back and got hit; It was not a good way to start the day. “I need to check it again,” said the Australian. “I couldn’t do much, they crashed me in the first corner,” Norris analyzed.

While the tension reached its zenith at McLaren, behind is a certain Max Verstappen. Possibly, in the minds of the papaya boys despite the fact that the four-time Red Bull champion is behind them. As nervousness grows in Woking, the Austrian team found the ideal fit for its RB21 which seemed destined to go down in history as an uncompetitive car: they changed the flat bottom from Monza and the Dutchman began to fly. In the last four events he did not drop below second place, with two wins included, and became that tyrannosaurus that chases the kids in the jeep from Jurassic Park. At McLaren they see Max’s figure getting bigger and bigger in the rearview mirror.

Verstappen went on vacation 97 points behind Piastri, the leader after the Hungarian Grand Prix. From the return and with the renewed Red Bull, the champion was on the lookout. And while the McLaren boys were eliminated in the short race in Austin, the Dutchman achieved victory and cut another eight points. Verstappen will qualify for the long race this Sunday at 55. He has dropped 42 since returning from vacation. Will it be enough for you? “I have a 50% chance of being champion. Because I can win it or not,” said Max in Singapore.

The wait for qualifying this Saturday in Austin will be tense for the McLaren team. Brown and Stella must meet again, while the mechanics must repair the cars to arrive on time and, who knows, with the MCL39s in ideal condition. In the Red Bull pit, Verstappen will drink something cool and wait to go out to find pole and continue with his plan to push. He is winning the psychological battle by a landslide. Maybe the championship is not enough to discount the difference. The only positive thing for McLaren is that it happened in the sprint, because if it happened in the long competition and the discount was 25 to 0…