AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen‘s championship chances received a healthy boost at Saturday’s U.S. Grand Prix sprint race after he secured victory and the two McLaren drivers crashed out.

Verstappen’s eight-point gain over championship leader Oscar Piastri means he is now 55 points behind the Australian and 33 points behind Lando Norris.

The McLaren drivers were fighting for position in Turn 1 on the opening lap when Piastri made contact with the Sauber of Nico Hülkenberg and was launched into Norris.

Before the collision, Piastri had made a good start but was on the outside of Norris on the run up to Turn 1. Norris ran deep into the corner to fend off his teammate, while Piastri attempted to cut back inside Norris and drove across the path of Hulkenberg, who had attempted to go on the inside of both McLarens.

The two title contenders suffered race-ending damage and retired on the opening lap, while Hulkenberg dropped to the back of the field after losing his front wing.

Fernando Alonso‘s Aston Martin also suffered collateral damage that saw him retire on the opening lap along with the McLarens.

The collision comes just two weeks after Norris was blamed for contact with Piastri on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix — an incident that saw McLaren retrospectively blame Norris and impose undisclosed “consequences” on the British driver.

Speaking to Sky Sports from the pit wall after Saturday’s collision, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said he blamed Hulkenberg.

“That was terrible, neither of our drivers to blame there,” Brown said. “Some amateur hour driving. Clearly Nico drove into Oscar. He had no business being where he was.”

The FIA stewards did not investigate the collision, which is in line with their policy on first-lap incidents.

A five-lap safety car period followed the collision to allow marshals to clear up the debris before Verstappen, who had made a clean start from pole position, led the pack away at the restart.

On Lap 8, George Russell made an overly optimistic move to the inside of Verstappen for the lead at Turn 12, but ended up running both cars off the track and remaining in second place.

When asked on the incident afterwards, Russell said: “Well, you don’t get many opportunities with Max. Saw half a chance. … I was probably too far behind, but I was glad I gave it a go. P2 for sure, was better than we could have expected. And, yes, some decent points.”

From that point onwards, Verstappen built a two-second buffer to the Mercedes driver, which he managed to maintain until the race ended under a late safety car.

“[The] start was good,” Verstappen said after the race. “Then, of course, there was a safety car, because we did Turn 1 incident. Took a few laps after the safety car to have decent base, so, we need to figure out what was going on there. But nevertheless, we won the sprint, which is, of course, the most important.

“Already looking at, for [Sunday], I do think we need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens, because we haven’t seen anything of them,” he added.

Carlos Sainz took third for Williams, securing his second top-three finish of the season, with it joining his podium at last month’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Sainz said: “We had a solid race. We had solid pace from our own. The Ferraris were quick behind, but keep them under control, and we brought home the P3, which tastes really good.”

Lewis Hamilton pulled off an overtaking move on Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to secure fourth place, while Leclerc had to settle for fifth ahead of the second Williams of Alex Albon in sixth.

Yuki Tsunoda made up 11 places in the first-corner chaos to secure two points in seventh place ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was promoted to eighth after Oliver Bearman, who was eighth on the road, received a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

The action-packed sprint race finished under a safety car after Lance Stroll smashed into the side of Esteban Ocon while attempting to pass the Haas at Turn 1.

The collision, which was entirely Stroll’s fault, wiped both cars out of the race and will be investigated after the race.