Mercedes driver George Russell has stated that Max Verstappen`s contact with him during the Spanish Grand Prix “felt deliberate” and labelled the move “totally unnecessary.”
Verstappen and Russell collided while battling for fourth place with just three laps remaining in the race. The contact occurred at Turn Five, shortly after the Red Bull driver had been instructed by his team to allow Russell to pass.
Race stewards reviewed the incident and imposed a 10-second time penalty on Verstappen. This penalty dropped him from fifth to 10th in the final standings. Additionally, he received three penalty points on his super licence, bringing him one point closer to an automatic race ban.
“I was just as surprised as you guys were. I`ve seen those sorts of manoeuvres before in simulator games and go-karting but never in F1,” Russell commented. “Ultimately, we finished in P4 and he finished in P10. I don`t really know what was going through his mind. It felt deliberate in the moment, so it felt surprising.”
When Verstappen was asked if the contact was intentional, he replied: “Does it matter? I prefer to speak about the race rather than one single moment.”
Red Bull had instructed Verstappen to let Russell regain the position following an earlier clash during the Safety Car restart. In that initial incident, they touched wheels at Turn One, and Verstappen cut the chicane, maintaining his position ahead of Russell.
Verstappen eventually conceded the position to Russell after their second collision. However, 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg suggested that the reigning world champion should have been `black flagged` for his actions.
Asked for his opinion on Rosberg`s strong view, Russell responded: “It`s not my place to say. Right now, I`m not going to give it any thought because we have our own problems to deal with.
“We are trying to make our car go faster. The Safety Car at the end shuffled things up. It`s down to the stewards to decide if it was deliberate or not.
“Max is such an amazing driver and so many people look up to him. It`s just a shame something like that continues to occur. It seems totally unnecessary and never seems to benefit himself.”
Christian Horner on Verstappen`s Frustration
Although Verstappen was reluctant to discuss the incidents with Russell, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner offered his perspective, suggesting that the instruction to yield the position contributed to the second contact at Turn 5.
“On recent experience and looking at recent incidents, obviously it`s subjective, you`ve asked for guidance from the FIA, from the referee, essentially there`s nothing come back,” he explained.
“You can see that it`s been reported. It`s going to the stewards. It looked for all intents and purposes that it was going to be a penalty.
“Therefore, the instruction was given to Max to give that place back, which he was obviously upset about and annoyed about because he felt that one, he`d been left no space and two, that George hadn`t been fully in control.”
“After a conversation with his engineer, he elected to give the space back at Turn 5. There was contact between the two cars.”
“I haven`t had a chance to speak to Max from his side, but obviously the stewards deemed that he caused a collision and got 10 seconds and some penalty points, unfortunately, which obviously was very frustrating because it leaves us with one point out of the afternoon, what should have been an easy podium.”
Pundit Reactions to the Incident
Nico Rosberg: “It looked like a very intentional retaliation. Wait for the opponent, go ramming into him, just like you felt the other guy rammed into you at Turn 1. That`s something which is extremely unacceptable and I think the rules would be a black flag, yes. If you wait for your opponent to bang into him, that`s a black flag.”
Anthony Davidson: “I don`t understand why Max slows down after Turn Four. Then suddenly decides, `no, I`m not going to let him through`. It`s almost he decides, `no, I`m not going to let him by at all`, carries such excessive speed into the corner – and he`s not out of control when doing this – and divebombs into the corner, hits the Mercedes hard.
“George is immediately on the radio to say, `what on earth was that?` I think it`s intentional and I don`t like to see that. Everything up until that point, I can`t blame Max for.”
Naomi Schiff: “I think this is all about temperament. At one point, Max gets the news he`s on the hard, he`s already frustrated about the fact he`s on the hard. It then goes wrong for him, he`s told the incident with [Charles] Leclerc was ignored and Leclerc said he drove towards Max, so he`s frustrated about that. Then he believes Russell is in the wrong. When you upset Max, the lion comes out.”
Marcus Prine