The’misjudgment’ made by Max Verstappen that resulted in a 10-second time penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix has been discussed by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.
Race stewards gave Verstappen a heavy penalty when he seemed to purposefully collide with George Russell’s Mercedes. Russell managed to finish the race, but his post-race interview revealed that he was horrified.
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The Dutchman’s chances of winning the world championship were severely damaged when he finished in 10th place due to his penalty.
In Verstappen’s fiery post-race interview, he said that it ‘doesn’t matter’ whether or not his move on Russell was intentional, but released a statement earlier this week saying that his move was ‘not right and shouldn’t have happened’.
Now, Marko has explained the details surrounding Verstappen’s collision with Russell, via Austrian TV channel Servus TV.
“Max lifted off the throttle, so we all assumed he was letting Russell through,” he said. “And then suddenly he accelerated again, I don’t know what kind of misjudgment or thought process was going on inside him. And then, as they say, all hell broke loose.
“There have already been issues in the past. It was unnecessary, and a lot of points lost. But, because of all the incidents and wrong decisions that unfortunately happened, emotions simply got the better of him.”
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The ‘past issues’ that Marko referred to include an incident at last season’s Qatar GP which caused seemingly irreparable damage to Verstappen and Russell’s relationship.
At the 2024 Qatar GP, Verstappen accused Russell of trying to get him a penalty in the stewards’ room following qualifying, after the Dutchman had impeded Russell and lost his pole position as a result.
Russell then came out and described Verstappen as a ‘bully’, even alleging that Verstappen had threatened to ‘put him in the wall’ during the race, comments that Verstappen denied saying.
At the end-of-season drivers dinner, Verstappen and Russell then sat as far away from each other as possible, and it is unclear as to whether the pair have spoken about their feud since.
It remains to be seen whether or not Verstappen has been in contact with Russell to apologise for the latest issue between the pair, but Russell warned Verstappen to think of the impact his actions can have on people who look up to him as a four-time champion.
