Mercedes boss Toto Wolff would accept a repeat of the events that led to Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification in the United States over lacking the pace to win races.

Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were disqualified after post-race checks discovered their two cars didn’t comply with the regulations governing plank wear.

Despite concerns throughout the weekend regarding the notorious bumps at the Circuit of the Americas, the FIA elected to retain its standard protocol of checking four cars.

Therefore, the other 13 classified runners at the chequered flag avoided potential punishment, including the respective team-mates of both Hamilton and Leclerc.

Hamilton revealed on Thursday in Mexico that he was told by “several sources” that other cars’ planks would have been deemed “illegal” if they had been investigated.

“That’s the feedback we got from the other teams,” Wolff echoed to Sky Sports F1. “Obviously they’re chatting with each other, the drivers, and also on a management level.

“I think many many teams were probably under the nine mil[limetres].”

Max Verstappen attributed rival teams falling foul of the rulebook to the Sprint format only allocating one practice hour before the drivers are locked into their chosen set-ups.

Wolff has agreed with Verstappen, admitting that, like Ferrari, Mercedes was convinced it had sacrificed enough margin with the ride height of its W14 car to avoid problems.

“The problem with the Sprint races is the car goes into parc ferme and you can’t adjust it any more,” Wolff argued. “We thought on Saturday that it could be on the limit but probably with a little bit of a margin.

“But we had a new floor, we got more downforce. Probably also in the Sprint race we didn’t run as much non-DRS laps which smashed the floor more so it was the stars were not aligned.”

Mercedes unveiled a revised floor in Austin, which Hamilton described as the first upgrade “he’s felt over the last two years.”

Wolff admits the upgrade “played an element” in Hamilton’s disqualification, before adding “we got more downforce, which is the positive, and you’re smashing the car on the bumps a little bit more.”

But the Austrian chief is confident that the issue won’t provide another discussion point across the remaining four rounds this year.

“It was absolutely specific [to Austin] and also because of the Sprint race weekend so we were more cautious now we have the data and we probably can adjust a little bit.”

Wolff insists he would prioritise experiencing a similar situation but having the pace to challenge for victories rather than lagging behind and remaining within the rules.

Hamilton matched his best result of the season to date, coming within 2.2s of usurping Verstappen’s Red Bull following a spirited charge in the closing laps.

“I would take the same thing [again] and I would also take the disqualification because we got it wrong,” he concluded.

“I take a disqualification running for a race win and seeing the performance against running P3 and ending up 25 seconds adrift. So every day of the week, I’ll go through the disqualification,” he concluded.

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that “several sources” informed him that other Formula 1 cars had planks that would have been deemed “illegal” but “weren’t tested” after the United States Grand Prix.

Hamilton matched his best result of the entire season with second place at the Circuit of the Americas, coming within 2.2s of beating Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

However, both Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were qualified after post-race checks discovered that the planks on their cars failed to comply with the regulations.

Reviewing the debacle for the first time ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, the Briton concedes that he was “devastated” to be told that he had lost his runners-up finish.

“I had just come out of the press conference. I got back and was about to get into the ice tub when Toto [Wolff] came down and told me,” Hamilton explained.

“Obviously devastated after such a good day and a great race. I didn’t find out fully until I was back home [in Austin]. A bit deflated but still lots of positives to take from it.”

Despite the drivers complaining about the bumps at COTA throughout the weekend, the FIA proceeded to retain its protocol of only measuring the planks of four select cars.

While the cars of Lando Norris and Verstappen were judged to be legal, the Ferrari of Leclerc and Hamilton’s Mercedes were both referred to the stewards, eventually resulting in their disqualification.

Hamilton, however, insists that more cars would have failed the test and has called for a “better structure” to be implemented to ensure other drivers can’t “get away with it”.

“Firstly I’ve heard from several different sources that there were a lot of other cars that were also illegal and weren’t tested, so they get away with it,” he issued.

“I’ve been racing here for 16 years and there’s been times that there’s been many other scenarios like this. Some people have gotten away with some things, and some people have just been unlucky they got tested.

“Ultimately, there needs to be some better structure to make sure it’s fair and even across the board.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted that the complications provided by the Sprint format allocating only one practice session contributed to Hamilton’s disqualification.

Hamilton believes that the rule restricting drivers to only 60 minutes of on-track running before mandating them to lock in set-ups for the weekend should be scrapped.

“We’ve never had that problem in Austin before,” Hamilton addressed. “It’s just that we had a Sprint race before.”

“An easy fix for that one,[would be to] just approach the weekend differently where the car is not set from Friday morning, especially at the bumpiest track we have been to. That’s really the only reason there’s failures, because it’s so bumpy.

“Some cars have better ride quality than others. If you look at the Ferrari, Charles’ head and my head, we have a pretty bad ride. It’s bumping around quite a lot because the cars are hitting the deck, it’s not because we are generally just pushing the car too low.”

Hamilton has also categorically denied that Mercedes’ improved run in Austin derived from gaining an advantage from running its W14 car too close to the ground.

“Last year, our car was best when it was low. So we were low and stiff. Our car works better at high ride heights now,” he contended.

“It’s not that we were pushing the car too low, it’s just an unfortunate scenario. 0.05 failure on the rear skid is not the main difference between winning or losing. That area wasn’t the reason we were fastest.

“That’s why it’s just a bit painful for us because if we changed our rear springs for example, perhaps we would have had a better ride. But we are hopeful that the performance will continue this weekend. Just need to make sure that the guys don’t overreact but I think we’ll be fine.”

Charles Leclerc insists that Ferrari discovering “zero wear” on the plank of its cars on Friday is “no excuse” for his disqualification from the United States Grand Prix.

Both Leclerc and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton were disqualified post-race after it was found that their respective cars did not comply with the regulations governing plank wear.

Mercedes admitted it was caught out by the Sprint format only granting the teams one practice hour before the cars are locked into their set-ups under parc ferme conditions.

Leclerc reveals that the announcement also came as a “complete surprise” to Ferrari, having not suspected that the team’s SF-23 was going to be marginal on plank wear.

“Honestly, it was a complete surprise because on Friday, when we could still change the car, there was zero wear, so it’s not like we were touching anywhere,” he issued.

“Then you get to the race and, of course, things have changed, because we were illegal. Rules are rules, so they need to be respected wherever, so it’s not an excuse to say that Friday we were fine. We need to look into it to find out how to better anticipate what the wear is going to be.”

Leclerc contends that even as late as Saturday night Ferrari had been confident that it would not encounter trouble from its car running too close to the ground.

He added: “Also on Saturday night we could see more or less where we were touching, we thought there was still plenty of margin, then we finished Sunday and it was a big surprise.

“We are still on the analyzing part of where we did wear the plank more than we expected, because we didn’t expect that. I was still at the track, but it’s the kind of thing you need to accept, there’s nothing to fight for with those things.”

The magnitude of the bumps present at the Circuit of the Americas this year prompted Max Verstappen to dispute that the venue’s track surface was not up to “F1 level”.

But Leclerc has denied that the bumps were the primary contributor to Ferrari falling foul of the rulebook, citing that there would have been many reasons for the excessive wear.

“There are so many more things, there’s also kerb riding, there are different things,” he disputed. “But kerb riding is also a thing, but at the end, we should have anticipated better, and we’ll look into it for the future.”

Prior to being disqualified, Leclerc had rued being the only driver on a wretched one-stop strategy that dropped him from pole position down to sixth place by the chequered flag.

After Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur acknowledged the side made an incorrect call, Leclerc underlined that the Maranello camp has learnt from the mistake.

“We looked into it. We understood that, obviously, it was the wrong choice,” he said.

“We checked back the numbers and we adjusted that, so at the end it’s all about learning and trying to go forward. Of course, this time it was a bit more different than others because we were basically the only car doing something so different. But we understood what went wrong.”

Last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix saw Ferrari slump to one of its least competitive showings of the entire campaign, comfortably ending up third-best.

Despite a challenging season, Leclerc is optimistic that the Italian marque will overcome the engine cooling troubles that stymied its competitiveness 12 months ago.

“Last year it was a very, very difficult race for us here, we had quite a lot of problems with our package here, especially with the Power Unit, but we don’t to have the same issues this year, so I hope it’s going to be a step forward,” the Monegasque said.

“We have a very different package this year, so it should be better than last year.”

Following criticism of the disqualification of both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc from last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, the FIA has offered insight into its post-race legality checks and procedures.

Hamilton was stripped of his second place finish and Leclerc sixth after FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer referred both drivers to the stewards for exceeding plank wear allowances in last Sunday’s race. The news of the disqualifications came some three-and-a-half hours after the conclusion of the grand prix.

Of the 17 finishers in Austin, the governing body only inspected the planks of four cars. With half of those checked found to have breached the regulations, questions have been raised over the legality of other competitors.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the FIA said: “A series of random checks are carried out every weekend on different areas of the cars.

“This process has been in place for many decades, and exists to ensure compliance with the regulations by virtue of the fact that the teams do not know before the race which specific areas of which cars might be examined beyond the standard checks carried out on every car each weekend (such as the fuel sample taken from all cars after each grand prix).”

Therefore, the FIA believes that as “any part of the car could be checked at any time”, the likelihood of disqualification should a team be caught should act as a strong enough deterrent to prevent breaches of the technical regulations.

As for why only the planks of four cars were tested, the FIA justified that time restraints on a grand prix weekend mean that it is simply not possible to utilise its full arsenal of checks on every car. This is especially the case for double and triple headers when teams need to rush off to the next race destination.

“In conducting these tests, a huge amount  of work goes on in the limited time available after a Grand Prix finishes and before the cars need to be returned to their teams for disassembly and transportation to the next race,” the statement continued.

“However, even though a wide array of checks are made, it is impossible to cover every parameter of every car in the short time available – and this is especially true of back-to-back race weekends when freight deadlines must also be considered.

“This is why the process of randomly selecting a number of cars for post-race scrutineering across various aspects of the regulations is so valuable. Each team is aware that selection is possible and understand that the chance of any lack of compliance being uncovered is strong.”

Since 2021, the FIA has been able to complete a more rigorous examination of any car.

“The scrutineering process isn’t limited to post-qualifying and post-race checks. The FIA also conducts additional examinations between qualifying and the race, and as well as the number of cars selected for post-race checks, at least one is selected for even more detailed analysis on internal components,” it is explained.

“These ‘deep dives’ are invasive and often require the disassembly of significant components that are not regularly checked due to the time it takes to carry out the procedure. This process involves comparing the physical components with CAD files the teams are required to supply to the FIA, as well as verification of team data that is constantly monitored by the FIA’s software engineers.

“As with everything in Formula 1, the process has evolved and been refined over the years to constitute the most stringent and thorough method of monitoring F1’s incredibly complex current-generation cars, acting as a serious deterrent while being practically achievable within the logistical framework of a Grand Prix weekend.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack admits the side understood the “risks” related to introducing upgrades on a Sprint weekend at the United States Grand Prix.

The Silverstone squad unveiled a raft of new parts – including a new floor edge, diffuser, engine cover and beam wing – in its bid to recapture its early-year momentum.

However, Aston Martin encountered trouble in the sole practice hour ahead of qualifying on Friday, completing only 24 laps as both cars were hampered by brake fire trouble.

Consequently, the lack of track time to dial in its new parts resulted in Aston Martin sustaining its worst qualifying of the season to date with a double Q1 elimination.

Aston Martin elected to withdraw its cars to the pitlane for Sunday’s race, reverting Fernando Alonso to the pre-Austin AMR23 and leaving Lance Stroll with the upgrades.

Stroll was able to charge through to take 9th on the road, promoted to seventh after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, while Alonso was also on course for points until floor damage curtailed his involvement late on.

“You have to accept, you know, that after three days of really hard work, there is a couple of smiling faces in the garage, and this is also well deserved,” Krack contended.

“But you have also to see, you know, what a missed opportunity might have been, and this is the reality.

“So the fact is that on Friday, we should have done our homework, we didn’t do it and we had the consequences all over the weekend.

“Now, there is always a rule, don’t bring the upgrades to the Sprint weekend when you take this decision to do it, nevertheless, you know what the risks are and then you cannot complain when it happens. But it’s another lesson learned.”

However, Krack has denied that Aston Martin made the wrong choice by committing to bringing updates to its car amid the complications that arise on Sprint weekends.

Asked if the team would have opted for a different strategy in hindsight, Krack explained: “Well, you know, I think you need to differentiate. You cannot just say no.

“Yeah, you need to be aware of the risk and we lost the Friday due to preparation. Yeah, we were not working well enough, we overheated the front corners and we lost the session.

“And this is all, you know when you have only one hour, when we came here, we said we have to be 100% in this one session. If we have one glitch, you know, you don’t have the data that you want to have and we had the glitch and we didn’t have the data.

“So I think it’s manageable if you have no issues, I think it’s manageable to bring upgrade into a sprint and other teams are doing it, you know, it’s doable, but the risk is higher.”

Pressed to clarify which specification was better ahead of the remaining rounds of the triple header, Krack added: “You ask me Thursday, then I know.

“No, we need to do the analysis properly. I mean, we have now a couple of, we have some good data now because in the middle of the race, we had both cars driving behind each other with I think six or seven seconds difference and also no car in between.

“So there should be enough data to, to know by tomorrow or the day after what to do [for Mexico].

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has heaped praise on rookie Oscar Piastri by claiming his “rate of learning is remarkable”, despite a tough weekend in the United States.

Piastri was a victim of the Sprint format in Austin, with Friday’s poor showing in qualifying leaving him at the mercy of the midfield chaos at the start of Sunday’s grand prix.

An opening lap clash with Esteban Ocon led to an early retirement, following up a pointless 10th-place showing in Saturday’s Sprint race.

But the weekend was a low ebb in what has been a great rookie campaign for the Australian, which has seen him attain multiple podiums and a Sprint victory.

Asked about Piastri on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas, Stella recognised the newcomer’s immense progress since he arrived at McLaren.

“I think we have said even at events where for reasons like Japan, where he was P2 on the grid, we said the real challenge here is actually the race pace because the race pace is the ability part of the race craft that you can test,” Stella said.

“So you sort of discover in the race and very rapidly you need to understand what’s going on with the tyres, what’s going on with the competition, the race situation, adapt and still be quick.

“That’s normally what comes later in the journey of a rookie. So we are extremely pleased that we are actually ticking the box from a pure speed point of view.

“And we saw that even in the Sprint shootout in Q3, he was actually there with Lando.

“But when it comes to putting laps together, especially in hot and high-tech situations like yesterday, for instance, in the Sprint, that’s where experience is important,” he continued.

“But I would like to highlight that the objective for today was to capitalize on yesterday’s experience in the Sprint, learn from a driving point of view, from a tyre management point of view, what we needed to learn and do better today.

“We are happy that actually we were in a better position today in the first stint and this confirms that the rate of learning is remarkable.”

Although Piastri failed to contribute to the team’s points tally last weekend, Norris’ second-place finish in Sunday’s race elevated McLaren above Aston Martin in the standings.

Mercedes admits that the team has been left “embarrassed” by the technical infringement that saw Lewis Hamilton disqualified from the United States Grand Prix.

Hamilton matched his best result of the season to date last Sunday in Austin, mounting a large charge to come within 2.2s of usurping Max Verstappen for victory.

However, the Briton was disqualified post-race along with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after their cars did not comply with the regulations governing only 1mm of plank wear.

Speaking on Sunday, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff relayed that the lack of track time afforded by the Sprint format contributed to the German marque being caught out.

Mercedes Technical Director James Allison has echoed Wolff’s comments, citing that the sole hour of practice running flagged no wear to the plank from the bumps and kerbs.

“Austin is a track with a very bumpy surface and therefore you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground,” Allison explained via Mercedes’ post-race review.

“We just simply didn’t take enough margin at the end of free practice 1.

“When we had done our set-up, we checked the plank and everything all looked fine, untouched after the FP1 running. But the results of the race speak for themselves.

“We were illegal, so clearly, we should have had our car set a little bit higher up to give ourselves a little bit more margin. It’s of course a mistake, it’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track.

“But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin especially at a track like that with all its bumps.”

While Allison accepts the whole side is reeling from falling foul of the rules, he insists the lost points don’t detract from the strength of Mercedes’ race-day performance.

Mercedes brought a revised floor to the Circuit of the Americas, intended to determine whether the squad was on the “right track” with development for next year.

But Hamilton was buoyed by “one of the first upgrades that I’ve actually felt over the last two years”, adding that the upgraded W14 instilled added confidence in him to push.

“Of course, the disqualification is a significant blow,” Allison added. “It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and everybody here feels it.

“Everybody is upset, embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like being on the wrong side of the rules and just lamenting the lost points.

“Give it a day or two and that will start to wane and be replaced by the much happier feeling, which is we moved our car forward this weekend and that’s hard to do.

“But we did it and we did it by a decent amount. And with four races left in the championship, four races where I am sure we will stay on the right side of the skid block rules.

“The initial feeling [of] hurt, disappointment and frustration will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package, and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”

The United States Grand Prix earmarked the arrival of Haas introducing its eagerly-anticipated upgrade package – but the modifications to the VF-23 failed to inspire a happy homecoming, leaving the American outfit on the brink of slumping to the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.

Haas arrived back on home soil for the second of three scheduled rounds in the States as a team desperately in need of a strong result, having only amassed a solitary point across the previous eight rounds.

Consequently, the team’s stagnant progress had opened the door for fellow Ferrari engine customer Alfa Romeo to leapfrog Haas in the order with a double points haul in Qatar.

But, unlike its closest rivals, Haas had the promise of a highly revised car on the way.

Courtesy of its close technical collaboration with Ferrari, Haas persisted with the ‘bathtub’ sidepod concept into this year. But an aerodynamic imbalance saw Ferrari abandon the philosophy earlier in the campaign, culminating in the Italian marque returning to winning ways in Singapore last month.

After accompanying Ferrari in refusing to plough further resources into an idea that had reached its development ceiling, Haas rented a workshop in Austin ahead of the weekend to ensure it could deliver the changes that would ensure it became the final team on the grid to converge to the downwash sidepod solution pioneered successfully by World Champions Red Bull.

The VF-23, sporting a tweaked US-themed livery for Austin, brought improvements to the floor, engine cover, sidepod inlet, sidepods, quarter panel and padding gills.

The alterations were primarily targeted at rectifying Haas’ long-standing tyre degradation woes, which have repeatedly stymied the team from converting promising grid positions into regular points scores.

Although Kevin Magnussen wound up fifth in the sole practice hour ahead of qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday, the Dane then failed to advance to Q3. Meanwhile, team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, usually a one-lap specialist, couldn’t even escape elimination from the first segment.

Nevertheless, Magnussen remained optimistic about the Kannapolis-based squad’s weekend prospects at that stage, insisting that he retained the pace to reach the top 10, adding that the race would determine the true extent of the progress Haas had made with its latest developments.

“The real question is whether the car is better on the tyres, if the performance is better there,” Magnussen assessed post-qualifying. “That’s what we’re really looking for. Not really whether we’re a little bit better on one lap or not, that’s not the question.”

Fast forward a day and Magnussen’s pre-weekend excitement had dissipated into overwhelming concern. The 19-lap Sprint encounter on Saturday evening exposed a familiar tale of the sight of both Haas drivers being powerless to prevent their plight once tyre wear became a factor in race trim.

“It didn’t look too good, honestly. But we’ll investigate and see what we think,” Magnussen explained. “It’s just frustrating. [The tyre struggles] looked a little bit similar [to before]. The pace dropped off a lot.

“I got a decent start and a decent first lap, then stayed there for a few laps before the well-known cycle of getting overtaken and the tyres dropping off started.”

However, Hulkenberg remained slightly more upbeat about Haas’ unsettling predicament, citing how the Sprint format had afforded the team only one practice session to optimise its heavily transformative package before parc ferme regulations were enforced.

The German driver added: “First glimpse, obviously not a transformation, unfortunately. But it feels like it was the first real session, with this car, with this package.

“There’s more to explore, more to unlock, probably also to readjust the set-up. But we need time and track time and we didn’t quite have that yet. But it was expected to be tricky to bring an update of that magnitude and hit it on the head the first time.”

Subsequently, Haas elected to withdraw both cars from the starting grid to the pitlane ahead of Sunday’s grand prix, allowing the team to conduct further set-up changes.

Ultimately, the gamble would not yield a return to points-scoring ways, as Hulkenberg was pipped by Logan Sargeant in the closing stages for what transpired to be 10th place, with Magnussen trailing behind in 14th.

But Team Principal Guenther Steiner maintained that Haas made the correct choice in sacrificing its qualifying result to experiment further with its new package, leaving the side better placed ahead of the remaining four rounds of the season.

“I mean, today was better than yesterday,” he admitted. “Thank God we made the decision to go out of the pit lane with the changed aero set-up. Obviously, we now need to look at data and stuff like this to have a better starting position in Mexico with the setup.

“We were a little bit behind, knowing that we only had one hour. It’s not like saying that we did a bad job, it was just very tight, such a big upgrade, and going in here.

“But we knew the risk, and we took the race, but I think we know for sure a lot more now than we did before. And hopefully we can put it into performance in Mexico.”

Unfortunately for Haas, its turn to unveil radical upgrades failed to deliver the sort of instant, fruitful gains that McLaren profited from earlier in the year, with Lando Norris recording a fourth consecutive podium.

Whereas McLaren’s resurgence continued as the Woking camp displaced Aston Martin for fourth position in the Constructors’ table, Haas’ dire run continued. The ongoing rut for America’s sole F1 entry was compounded by a selection of its rivals taking advantage to make up ground in the points standings.

AlphaTauri managed to sneak into the top 10, stealing the fastest lap with a late dash, before Yuki Tsunoda was promoted to eighth once Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified when post-race checks discovered that their cars didn’t comply with the regulations governing plank wear.

Meanwhile, their misfortune also elevated Williams into the top half with both cars – including granting Logan Sargeant’s first-ever F1 point to cement its hold on seventh place.

But more pertinently, AlphaTauri’s five-point haul marked its best return of the season to date and brought the Italian entity to within only two points of the struggling Haas side.

The Faenza squad were boosted by an amended floor for the US GP weekend, which supported the Red Bull-inspired upgrade it bolted onto the AT04 in Singapore. Since then, AlphaTauri has been a much-improved force in comparison to its lacklustre start and will also be backed by an increased synergy with the senior team from next year.

Tsunoda continued his quietly impressive campaign with another strong drive, while experienced eight-time grand prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is certain to contribute to the team’s endeavours once he overcomes the race rust that was evident in his return appearance from a broken hand injury.

On current form, Haas are the favourites for the F1 equivalent of the wooden spoon, which would entitle it to the lowest amount of prize money from the available pot. However, it would also be a sizeable blow to a team that effectively sacrificed the entirety of 2021, the last season under the previous regulations, to commence this latest technical cycle from a promising base.

But despite Haas being required to hit the reset button again, Steiner is convinced that Haas is now heading in the right direction towards a brighter future once more.

“I don’t know how good it is [the upgrades] yet,” the Italian added. “At least both drivers could race some people today, because the last five [races] we were just being overtaken, and at least we could overtake some people today. Are we good enough? No. We need to get more out of it. At least we’re moving in the right direction,” he concluded.

In the short term, the upgrades failed to reignite Haas’ torrid season and has positioned it at risk of bringing up the rear in 2023. But the true test of its latest overhaul will be whether the team can avoid its current slide from becoming another prolonged period rooted to the bottom.

Both Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri avoided putting blame on each other’s door for the opening lap clash that put both out of the United States Grand Prix.

Starting 10th, the McLaren driver had a strong launch off the line and eyed up a move on the inside of Turn 1 as Ocon ran side-by-side with Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Approaching Turn 2, Piastri attempted to hold on around the outside of Ocon but the pair made contact which would soon put an end to the pair’s Sunday afternoon in Austin.

Alpine called Ocon to retire as early as Lap 6 while overheating called time on Piastri’s race by the end of Lap 10.

“I didn’t really think anything of it to be honest,” Piastri said post-race.

“I felt like I definitely had the right to be there. I don’t think Esteban did anything untoward, just we met and unfortunately it’s caused damage for both of us so, just one of those incidents.

“There’s fluid all down the right sidepod and that’s where the contact was so. Yeah, I think that was probably a big cause of the end of the race.

“I think today was a better step forward from yesterday, maybe still not quite to the same level I would have liked but definitely a big improvement from yesterday.

“It’s a shame it’s over early, I think there was still a lot of learning to go on this afternoon, but yeah. I think I was getting better and better, just needed to do it a bit quicker. “

Revealing more details about the cause of Piastri’s retirement, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella explained: “The impact with the front left wheel of one of the Alpines caused the damage in the water system right under the sidepod, under the bodywork on the sidepod, and this meant that we had a gradual loss of the pressure.

“And at some stage we saw that temperatures were going out of control. Pressure was kept reducing, so we needed to retire the car.”

Asked whether the contact was partly down to bad luck, Ocon explained: “I had a good launch, I was on the inside. I just took the corner, obviously Oscar then tried to go around the outside [Turn 2] and that was it – we touched. If I had to do it again, there’s nothing I’d really change.

“At the end it doesn’t matter to comment on it, the end result is that we are both out of the race. We both touched and we paid the price. We both had to retire the car, my whole sidepod was damaged which is a big shame.

“I think we could have scored points today. Only a couple of days until we go racing again which is good because we can turn the page.”

Carlos Sainz explains difficulty with the bumps was responsible for him being unable to match Charles Leclerc’s pace across the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.

While Leclerc stormed to pole position in Friday’s qualifying hour, Sainz could only wound up fourth and was beaten once again in the Shootout ahead of the Sprint race.

The Spaniard would trail his team-mate by over 10s come the end of Saturday’s 19-lap encounter, albeit having been the only driver to run the unfavourable Soft compound.

Sainz was able to usurp Leclerc to finish two spots ahead in Sunday’s race, but the latter was hindered by a rueful one-stop strategy call that left him struggling on ageing tyres.

Prior to that, Leclerc had been running comfortably ahead of the sister car but dropped to sixth before he was disqualified. Meanwhile, Sainz utilised the conventional two-stop to earn a surprise podium once Lewis Hamilton was also disqualified.

Although Sainz accepts that Leclerc was able to contend with the SF-23 being more on edge across COTA’s notorious bumps, he rued the Sprint denying him the chance to make set-up changes to combat his woes.

Asked about Leclerc’s evident advantage in Austin on Saturday, Sainz said: “For me, it’s mainly track characteristics. The car here is bouncing around a lot and jumping around a lot and when that’s the case normally Charles copes with it a bit better than I do.

“And this time I didn’t have time to change the setup to improve it, to put it a bit more to my liking, and go into the race weekend a bit more comfortable with the car to extract more and more performance.

“In Sprint weekends that’s the problem, that you’re stuck with the baseline set up more or less that you can run and the amount of bumps again this year surprised us being even bumpier than last year. I’m just not coping very well with it in the high speed. Not a lot of confidence.

“I feel like the car is going to snap on me at any point in time, and I’m having to drive one step under the limit, which is never ideal in quali.”

Despite being satisfied with his race, Sainz admitted he must investigate the regression in his qualifying performance that has handed the initiative back to Leclerc.

“Something to look into in qualifying, the last couple of races my quali has been nothing special but in the race I’m quick,” he noted. “I was quick in Suzuka, quick here.

“Now I need to focus on getting my quali pace back and keep doing a good job in the race because the pace is definitely solid. I was pushing hard out there along with good tyre management.”

The two-time grand prix winner is optimistic that the smoother asphalt present at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this weekend in Mexico will boost his prospects.

Sainz is also wary of the issues Ferrari encountered last year when the Italian marque were forced to turn down the engine on both cars amid reliability concerns.

“Smoother, no, Mexico? It’s just the kerbs, kerb riding sector one, sector two it’s a lot to get right,” he explained. “Hopefully we can put the Singapore [where Sainz converted pole into victory] setup on and be quick, and let’s see how the engine behaves this year.”