Oscar Piastri suffered a major blow in the Formula 1 title battle as he crashed out of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint, but did his championship rival and McLaren team-mate inadvertently cause the accident?

Piastri was running third on lap six when his car was sent spinning into the barrier after he ran onto a wet kerb at Turn 3, with Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine's Franco Colapinto falling victim in the same spot just moments later.

Each driver appeared surprised by the extreme reaction their car had to the kerb, which suggested the condition of the corner might have changed from their previous laps.

A potential cause was revealed when the radio communications of Kimi Antonelli, who was running in second for Mercedes, told his engineer that leader Norris had run onto the kerb at Turn 3 on lap six and splashed up a significant amount of water.

While it's impossible to know for sure, it could have been the case that the water that was spread around the area by Norris running wide contributed to the trio of crashes that followed.

Piastri: It was a silly mistake

Regardless of whether the additional water in the area contributed, Piastri accepted that he had made a "silly mistake" by running too wide.

Having seen his deficit to Norris at the top of the drivers' standings grow to nine points after the Brit won the Sprint, Piastri said: "Just dipped a wheel on the white line of the kerb and around I went.

"A silly mistake, or unfortunate mistake. That's it."

Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok agreed with Piastri's honest self-assessment.

"It's an error," Chandhok said. "Other people got through and he didn't.

"I sympathise with him but it is a driver error."

'A bit strange' - Colapinto and Hulkenberg left confused

With Hulkenberg having been 10th and Colapinto 14th before their crashes, several cars did pass through the corner without crashing.

However, the pair both suggested they had done little differently to the previous laps.

"I just lost the car in Turn 3. There was some new water or something, so it's strange, but I need to see the onboard," Colapinto said.

"Other cars spun there on the same lap, so it was a bit strange. I don't really know at the moment, but it was quite strange.

"I know it was a bit damp, the track, but we had done a few laps already and it was feeling fine."

Hulkenberg added: "It just snapped very suddenly, aggressively and there's not much recovering from there.

"The team said that Oscar went off first there, might have put the wheel wide and put some water out of the kerb and onto the track.

"I just drove and didn't do very different than the lap before, but just completely lost the rear and lost the car."

Russell jokes: It was like a Mario Kart banana!

Having maintained his title race surge with Sprint victory, Norris admitted he had run wider than intended at Turn 3 on lap six.

"It's a kerb you always use. In qualy, we use it a lot," he said in the post-Sprint press conference for the top three finishers.

"Obviously, when it's wet conditions like this, you kind of want to stay off all the kerbs, so I ran a little bit wide.

"I saw the water come onto the track, but that was it."

George Russell, who finished third behind his Mercedes team-mate Antonelli, interjected after Norris' above remarks to joke that the incident had been reminiscent of the video game Mario Kart, where players can throw obstacles into the path of vehicles behind them.

"It felt a little bit like Mario Kart when you throw the banana out behind," Russell laughed.

"Smartest guy on the grid, this guy (Norris)."

After claiming the best Sprint result of his career, Antonelli explained that he had taken extra caution after seeing Norris run wide on lap six.

"I saw Lando going wide and water came up. I actually had a lot of water going into my visor," the Italian rookie said.

"But I was trying to stay away from kerbs during the whole race because it was very, very tricky, especially at the beginning.

"So especially when I saw him lifting water, I tried to take a bit more care just to avoid any spin or moments because, at the beginning, the end of [the] last sector and sector one was the wettest and it was really crucial to keep it tidy to make it through."

Sky Sports F1's Sao Paulo GP Schedule

Sunday November 9
3.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Sao Paulo GP build-up
5pm: THE SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX
7pm: Chequered Flag: Sao Paulo GP reaction
8pm: Ted's Notebook

Formula 1's thrilling title race continues in Brazil with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday at 5pm, with build-up from 3.30pm live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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