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McLaren team-mates and title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris crashed out of the United States Grand Prix sprint race in a collision just after the start.
Piastri bounced into Norris after clipping the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, taking both McLarens out of the race. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was also taken out by the incident.
The incident happened during a weekend in which McLaren's attempts to keep a lid on the tension between their drivers and let them race has been the focus of attention.
The race was won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen after a brief fight with Mercedes' George Russell. Williams' Carlos Sainz held off Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton for third.
Verstappen's win narrows his deficit to the McLaren drivers in the championship and the Dutchman is now 55 points behind Piastri and 25 adrift of Norris.
The Briton said: "I just got hit, right? I did nothing wrong. Further back things happened and I just got unlucky and got hit because of it.
"I need to look a bit more carefully. It's more people further back just being a bit careless and we are the consequence of that."
Piastri told Sky Sports: "I've not seen the incident from the TV cameras but I obviously had a pretty good start.
"We both went pretty deep into Turn One. I tried to cut back and got a hit. Not a great way to start the day. I need to have another look."
Piastri made a better start than Norris and initially moved to attack his team-mate on the outside as they approached the first corner with its wide, uphill entry.
The Australian then went for the inside in the hope of getting the cutback on Norris, but in doing so his left rear wheel caught the right front of Hulkenberg's car.
That launched Piastri into the air and as he bounced back on to the track, he collected Norris. The Briton was out on the spot while Piastri limped on for a few corners further before pulling off.
It was exactly what McLaren management did not want. All year they have been emphasising that the drivers were free to race but the first rule was that they must not crash into each other.
The start of the Austin weekend has been dominated by discussion of the small touch between them in Singapore two weeks ago, when Norris bounced into Piastri after clipping Verstappen.
Norris received "consequences" for that, and it remains to be seen how McLaren will handle the fall-out from this situation as they seek to keep the relationship between the two drivers cool in the heat of a title battle.
The crash was a gift for Verstappen, who McLaren have always insisted remained a threat in the championship despite his significant deficit, especially as Red Bull have returned to form in recent races.
The crash brought out the safety car for five laps and after the restart Verstappen was tracked by Russell, who made a bold move into Turn 12 on lap seven, a late dive that ended up with both going off the track.
Verstappen retained the position and soon began to edge away and took control of the race.
Sainz was no threat to Russell, but he had to watch his mirrors for Hamilton.
The seven-time champion passed team-mate Charles Leclerc on lap eight down the back straight after the Monegasque lost control of his car through the high-speed Esses earlier in the lap.
Leclerc had a snap through the Esses, cut one of the corners, and that allowed Hamilton to close up. He then passed down the straight as Leclerc edged him right to the edge of the track on the inside.
Leclerc tried to fight back through the series of slower corners through the stadium section but Hamilton held on.
Leclerc took fifth place, with Williams' Alex Albon sixth and Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda seventh.
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli took the final point after a 10-second penalty for Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who was adjudged to have gained an advantage by leaving the track after the Italian tried a passing move into Turn 12 late in the race.
Bearman could not believe the penalty when told about it by his team during the race, obviously feeling Antonelli had forced him off track with his late move.
The race ended under another safety car after Aston Martin's Lance Stroll T-boned Esteban Ocon's Haas into the first corner, leaving his team with a massive repair job on both cars in the gap before grand prix qualifying at 22:00 BST.
