00:00In sprint, ladies and gentlemen, and it's lights out, away we go, Verstappen gets away well, as does Norris, but here comes Piastri, and he's already alongside his teammate and ahead of his teammate, Norris has the inside line, takes that second place, goes wide, Piastri tangles and spins Norris round and makes contact with Nico Hülkenberg, and there's a tyre rolling down the hill there that has come off one of the cars as Verstappen goes clear.
00:25Both McLarens are out of this Grand Prix, as Piastri got tagged into his teammate, Tsunoda damage, he's got a wing tucked underneath his car, that is critical for the World Championship.
00:37And you wonder after the front wing goes flying off the Sauber, and...
00:41They'll have to safety car that, because that's right on the racing line, that's an immediate safety car, I don't think there'll be any repercussions at McLaren, because it was just basically Piastri getting spun around.
00:52Yeah, but into his teammate as well, and what it has done, it's left Max Verstappen in the lead from George Russell, Carlos Sainz up the third, Charles Leclerc up to fourth from tenth on the grid, Hamilton fifth, Tsunoda up to sixth from eighteenth, there's the stranded tyre, and the stranded McLaren by the side of the track, Albon seventh, Behrman in eighth in the final points position, Fernando Alonso also involved in that first corner carnage that has taken out Lando,
01:22Norris, and might well have taken out Oscar Piastri as well, who is stranded down at turn nine, this is the worst possible start to a Saturday morning, and the final quarter of the season that the Constructors' Champions McLaren could have had, but let's look at the start here, and the two McLarens are wheel to wheel, and then Piastri slightly ahead, and then it all unfolds, Martin.
01:45Yeah, well Piastri yielded to his teammate and tried to tuck underneath him, and that's when he made contact with Hülkenberg, and goes up on two wheels, just slams into his teammate.
01:55It's just a first corner drama in Formula One, it's hurt Hülkenberg badly, but what we're going to see is Piastri trying to do the tuck-in, as Norris covers the inside line, all fair enough, Piastri gives him a load of space, tries to double back underneath him, and I must say, almost inevitably, there was a car there.
02:18I just wonder, was Nikhil Hülkenberg in a position where he couldn't go any further to the left, as Fernando Alonso was there, after making a good start, this is Piastri right now.
02:29Now, from that angle, Martin, he is not at fault at all, there's nothing he could have done.
02:33So, I've just got to be careful, we have possible suspension damage.
02:37Yeah, we do.
02:38Yeah, we do.
02:40That's going to need, that's going to need a big fix, but Piastri definitely gets hit by Hülkenberg, and then he's into his teammate,
02:48and no chance to stop.
02:49Yeah, so he's trying to double back underneath, and...
02:52Yeah, someone just wants me out, I'm out.
02:56No, no, I'm sorry.
02:59This is Lance Stroll we're on board with now, he makes contact as well, loses part of his front wing,
03:04that's Gasly and Behrman trying to make his way through and both succeeding, so Stroll has, er, he might be out of this race too.
03:12It's a bit of debris all over the track, mate, like, like, like everywhere, yeah.
03:19That was, it's like, although, from turn, turn, turn one, all the way down to turn eleven.
03:25The big concern with debris is that you get punctures from that, and, of course, now Max Stappen becomes the safety car,
03:32it's his prerogative when he wants to let it go, and he's decided to go pretty early.
03:38He's gone pretty early, George Russell can't try and make a move past him until they cross the line,
03:44but he's done well to hang on here to the back of that rebel, and Max sliding out of the final corner there,
03:50not getting the traction early, but he's got a big enough advantage as we power down the straight,
03:55down towards turn one, Carlos Sainz in third place, they're all quite strung out here,
03:59we're not going to get a repeat of the carnage going through turn one this time.
04:02George Russell at the end of this straight, he's been quicker through the first sector,
04:05by two tenths, he'll get ever closer to the red bull at the end of the straight,
04:11and he does dives up the inside, and Max goes off the track, they both go off the track,
04:17so I think Max will not be demanded to hand that back.
04:22It came from a long way back, George Russell there, it was opportunistic, wasn't it?
04:26It was, but if he'd have stayed on the road, Max would have had to yield that position,
04:30I don't believe he has to do so.
04:32Hey, what is that?
04:33Completing this the corner.
04:35He went off the track, mate.
04:36Isn't that the sort of thing Max does, the big dive, and then the thing we love him for?
04:44That was, you know, that's motor racing.
04:46Let's have another look, down the back straight towards turn 12,
04:49and he kind of made his mind up late that he was going to go for it,
04:52and just couldn't stop.
04:53No, he just locked the inside front tyre, which took him wide,
04:57because as soon as you put some angle into the steering wheel,
05:00you just loosen up that inside tyre,
05:02but I thought it was a great attempt to take it.
05:05There go the two Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton on Charles Leclerc,
05:09and it looks like he might have got that move done.
05:11Leclerc looking for the old switcheroo, that ain't coming his way.
05:15Lewis Hamilton takes fourth place ahead of his teammate,
05:19sliding through the turns, but managing to stay clear.
05:22Take on his teammate Charles Leclerc.
05:24He just, that's how he got so close to Leclerc,
05:27because he went off the track.
05:28Yeah, stupid mistake, sorry.
05:29And that then set up the opportunity for Hamilton to get him later in the lap.
05:35He was, yeah, about nine tenths of a second back,
05:36but then we saw Leclerc go off.
05:38That explains a lot.
05:39They were in uncharted territory over there, the two Ferraris, that's for sure.
05:43And a big chance of punctures in places like that.
05:46Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly down into the left-hander.
05:51Lawson stays on the track.
05:52That looked pretty nice to me.
05:54Job done.
05:55So now we've got two strikes, both at turn 12.
06:00So it looks like they're about three laps behind our track limits here.
06:05Job in, we'll have turn 12 while we're back.
06:08Shouldn't really be counted as a racing.
06:11So what they're talking about there is exceeding track limits.
06:14You get three strikes and then a fourth and you're out,
06:17or you get a five-second penalty.
06:18Yeah, obviously not a great way to start the day,
06:20but I need to have another look.
06:24Two McLaren drivers both out of this race, very much in this race.
06:28Oli Behrman and Kimi Antonelli.
06:30They're going wheel-to-wheel around turn 17.
06:32This is brave from both, and it's sensational racing too.
06:36Behrman just stays ahead.
06:37Carlos Sainz in third place will move into the top ten of a championship
06:41for the first time this season, if he can hold on to it.
06:43But that is Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll.
06:45And they have had a tangle, and quite the tangle,
06:49as the Aston Martin is moving along on three wheels now.
06:52Park it, Lance.
06:52You're not allowed to drive a car in that condition.
06:55And a safety car has come out as well.
06:58You can't drive a car, as Martin said, in an unfit, unsafe condition.
07:02You'll also destroy the floor.
07:04And in a cost-cap world of Formula One,
07:06and towards the end of a season when they're developing their 2026 cars,
07:10you don't want to destroy loads of bits and pieces underneath that.
07:13It might well do that.
07:14Here, into turn one.
07:16Long way back.
07:17Lance Stroll goes for it, and then locks up.
07:20And there is nothing Esteban Ocon can do about that.
07:24As, well, Lance Stroll's just spearing into the side of the Haas there.
07:30Yeah.
07:31Yeah, I mean, he was so far, but he's saying,
07:34sorry, look, he was so far behind that I think Esteban Ocon,
07:38I mean, my old expression, a day late and a dollar short,
07:42that was definitely that, wasn't it?
07:44And I, I mean, Ocon put a great big welcome mat out on the inside,
07:49but I, you know, he would, because Stroll was so far behind him,
07:53I don't, he would never imagine there was a risk.
07:56This is the Oli Behrman incident.
07:58So down the inside goes Kimi Antonelli,
08:02and Behrman then has to go all four wheels off the track
08:06to be able to come back on and be almost alongside the Mercedes.
08:11After that, it was absolutely sensational.
08:12So that's Antonelli's corner, because his front axle was ahead,
08:15he stayed on the racetrack, he kept his car under control,
08:19and so a time penalty has been given to Oli Behrman for leaving the track.
08:26That, that's a no-brainer, I'm afraid.
08:28It's a 10-second time penalty,
08:30which will leave him last in this sprint race,
08:33because we're all going to finish behind the safety car, I would imagine.
08:37Any investigation for what happened with me and Antonelli?
08:39Yeah, Oli, unfortunately, we got a 10-second time penalty.
08:44What the hell?
08:45That is incredible.
08:48In what way?
08:49In the way that he's going to feel that he, he was run out of road,
08:53but Antonelli had got his front axle up.
08:57And now the safety car can pull away,
08:59and Max Verstappen, as he has done once, twice,
09:02and now three times in a sprint,
09:05here at the Circuit of the Americas,
09:07can look at the Checker flag and say,
09:09that's eight points in the bag.
09:10Thank you very much.
09:12Verstappen wins the Austin Sprint.
09:15George Russell comes home to take second place.
09:17Carlos Sainz will claim third for Williams,
09:21their best ever sprint race result.
09:24Lewis Hamilton picks up fourth
09:26after a super move on his teammate Charles Leclerc,
09:29midway through the race.
09:30The championship gap between Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.
Be the first to comment