Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both being eliminated in the opening-corner chaos in Formula 1's United States Grand Prix sprint race has sparked another controversial title twist.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown blamed Nico Hulkenberg, but here's what our writers think.
McLaren's painted itself into a corner with Norris 'consequences'
Edd Straw

Piastri has to look at himself there, given his attempt to cut back inside Norris required him to slow more than he otherwise would, then cut tight.
There was always a high risk that there would be cars arriving on the inside line, given he needed to shave off extra speed to square off the corner on the first lap, and that's put him into harm's way, given there were another 17 cars behind him.
In normal circumstances, that should simply be deemed a racing incident and move on. While Piastri put himself in that situation, that's well short of being to blame and punishable by the stewards.
What confounds the situation is McLaren's in-house 'fairness' doctrine.
If Norris's first lap error in Singapore required him to take accountability and a qualifying track position hit, then given Piastri's misjudgement led to his team-mate's elimination in the Austin sprint there should be some equivalent action. But where does this all end?
The reality is that no action should be taken against Piastri for an honest mistake here in a racing situation, just as none should have been taken against Norris last week, but McLaren has painted itself into a corner on this with its well-meaning but over-reaching strategy of managing the drivers with the promise of fairness.
And all of that is a distraction when it comes to the business of winning races and the drivers' championship.
Brown needs to revise his initial verdict
Glenn Freeman
F1 drivers regularly complain that their messages over the radio are taken out of context because they are speaking in the heat of the moment from the cockpit.
I really hope that once Zak Brown comes down off the pitwall and has a chance to take a breather, he revises his view on that accident and the comments he made about any non-McLaren drivers who were involved.
If his criticism of other drivers was just something said in the heat of the moment after a disaster for his two drivers, so be it. But if he doubles down on it in the cold light of day, then that is really poor.
Other drivers - whichever team they are racing for - have a right to be on track with your precious little Papaya princes.
Verstappen will be laughing
Scott Mitchell-Malm

Max Verstappen would have been laughing at this. And his title senses will be tingling.
While this hasn't happened in a real race, so the damage is mitigated, it's the peak of the McLaren vs Verstappen dilemma: while these two are busying themselves with each other, Verstappen's on a roll and catching up.
And the worse they behave, the longer Verstappen's run will continue, and the quicker he'll catch up too as the points swings get bigger.
This was entirely self-inflicted by the McLarens. While Norris did nothing wrong in being cleaned out by Piastri, he raced Piastri hard into Turn 1 having failed to jump Verstappen.
His deeper dive prompted Piastri to focus solely on a cutback to try to get ahead, committing the cardinal sin for a car on the outside of a corner like that and turning across as though no others would be there.
I would love to see Verstappen's reaction when he watches it all back for the first time.
Piastri was too focused on Norris
Gary Anderson
It was a first-corner incident, but I believe that Piastri only saw Norris in his headlights; he forgot there were another 17 cars coming along behind that needed track space.
We have seen it before when the championship was getting into the final stages; Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost coming together in Suzuka 1989 was a good example.
As I have said many times, Verstappen still has an outside title chance. Getting eight points back on Piastri and Norris, who did nothing wrong in one sprint race, will simply be more motivation for him - but still, it's the McLaren drivers' championship to throw away.
In my opinion, Piastri did his best here to achieve that throwing away.
To add to that I think that the McLaren management appear to be wearing blinkers, they seem to be indicating that both Hulkenberg and Alonso were in the wrong, sorry but that’s bullshit. Bth of them were minding their own business but had nowhere to go when Piastri chopped across Hulkenberg.
Does McLaren now have to punish Piastri?
Jon Noble
If Norris was held responsible by McLaren for being in the wrong on the opening lap in Singapore, then it is hard to see how Piastri cannot be viewed in the same light for what happened at Austin.
Sure, there may have been no malice in what Piastri did, but in getting caught up with Hulkenberg as he tried to get a cutback on his team-mate - seemingly unaware the Sauber was coming up inside him - the end result was a costly take-out of Norris.
The Singapore reaction showed that McLaren's perception of keeping things fair means intention does not matter when it comes to breaking the golden Papaya Rule - of not hitting your team-mate.
You don't have to have done anything untoward or deliberate to break the rule.
So it is going to be fascinating to see now how McLaren reacts, and whether the consequences that Norris faced after Singapore will be stopped, or if they will be effectively wiped away by Piastri getting the same.
It was always suggested that McLaren's stance this year of controlling its team-mates' interactions as much as possible risked opening a Pandora's Box of constantly needing to intervene in every incident when things got too close between its drivers.
Austin has proved that again, and gives it an extra headache as Verstappen becomes an ever bigger title danger.
This continues Piastri's weakest title spell
Jack Benyon

Piastri's at fault here for me. To try a big cutback was the kind of high-risk move a championship chaser should be making, not a championship leader.
The fact that there were two cars alongside him to the inside shows this wasn't some sort speculative from-behind dive bomb by a single, overexcited driver.
Hulkenberg, and a perhaps more risky Fernando Alonso, were also just trying to get through there unscathed and would have done without Piastri's cutback.
Considering how he's displayed all the characteristics of a worthy champion for most of this year, this has been a really poor period for Piastri, who needs to weather this funk in the grand prix proper and prove this form is the exception not the rule.