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McLaren F1 chief Andrea Stella isn’t dwelling on Oscar Piastri’s Interlagos sprint race crash, putting it down as “just an episode” and backing his driver to bounce back later in qualifying.

Piastri crashed on Lap 6 of Saturday’s sprint after touching a damp curb at Turn 3, with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto also going off at the same corner moments later.

It allowed McLaren teammate Lando Norris to move nine points clear at the top of the world championship with the win, capitalizing on Piastri’s failure to score.

Stella told Sky Sports that he had “mixed feelings” about the sprint result, saying it was “unfortunate” that Piastri had crashed out.

“Mixed conditions, tricky conditions, you put a wheel too far, and we saw three cars on the same lap crash in the same point,” Stella said. “It’s just an episode. Oscar has been fast this weekend, so we look now forward to reorganizing, regrouping, repair the car, the big points are tomorrow, and capitalize on the speed in qualifying and then tomorrow with Oscar.”

Asked if he was confident Piastri could quickly put the crash behind him, Stella replied: “100%. He’s a very functional mind, and that certainly the conversation we are going to have.

“The most important point is that the speed is there. It’s an episode where you put a wheel on a curb and you lose it. it’s just an episode.”