Zak Brown has retracted his claim that "amateur" Nico Hulkenberg was responsible for the first corner incident in the Sprint that eliminated both McLarens.

Understandably emotional after seeing both his cars sidelined just moments into the race, Brown was asked about the incident.

"That was terrible," he told Sky Sports. "Neither of our drivers to blame there... some amateur hour driving from some drivers up there at the front, wiped out our two guys."

Asked who he was referring to, and whether it was Hulkenberg, the American said: "Err, I want to see the replay again. But clearly Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was, he went into his left rear tyre."

"I got hit, what else was I meant to do?" said Lando Norris shortly after. "That's about it, I got taken out, not a lot I could have done."

"We both went pretty deep into Turn 1," added Piastri, "I tried to cut back and got a hit, not a great way to start the day, but I need to have another look."

Subsequently, having watched numerous replays, Brown said: "I've reviewed it, I think I've changed my view. I can't really put that on Nico.

"In the heat of the moment, obviously pretty bothered what I saw there," he added, "a lot of incidents in Turn 1, but I don't think that's on Nico."

"We were all obviously racing," said Hulkenberg. "Fernando was kind of taking the inside, I knew he was diving in, but I didn't know where he was exactly.

"He was in a blind spot at that moment, so I wanted to leave some space for him," he added. "And then Oscar turned in very suddenly and aggressively. I wanted to cut back for the exit, but obviously, I was there. Yeah, unfortunate for all of us."

Told that Brown had retracted his initial claim, the Sauber driver said: "Good, so we're all in agreement then.

"It's still frustrating and disappointing," he continued, "because the car was strong and if we had kept it there, we would have scored points. I'm pretty confident and sure about that, but yeah, would have, could have, should have..."

In a further twist, Norris has revealed that, much like the Singapore incident, McLaren will carry out its own review, even though - again, as was the case in Singapore - the stewards declared it a racing incident.

"Like all things we do as a team, it'll be reviewed," said Norris. "It probably takes a bit more time to understand everything, and certainly before qualifying and before the race is not the best time. So, I think things will be reviewed to just understand a few more things."

"Obviously, we've had a couple of conversations with Lando and Oscar," said Andrea Stella. "But the conversations were fundamentally about resetting. In racing, you can't look backwards too much, especially when you have a qualifying session ahead. So, it was a conversation about resetting. As usual, we will review at the right time the incident. We will do that collaboratively, the team, the drivers, and we will make the right assessment."

As the debate over the incident continues, team boss Andrea Stella further muddied the waters.

"What I said straight after the sprint was that I think a bit more prudence, a bit more prudence from drivers that come with a lot of experience, especially when they are in a good position, would have been helpful," he said. "And I can confirm that this is still my opinion."

Check out our Saturday gallery from COTA here.