Following their contentious collision at the Spanish Grand Prix, in which the Dutchman received a 10-second time penalty, Max Verstappen and George Russell had a lot to say.
After being irritated by his team’s directive to allow the Brit to pass after an earlier incident in which they had also made contact, Verstappen seemed to purposefully drive into Mercedes’ Russell.
F1 HEADLINES: Max Verstappen owns up to the Spanish Grand Prix fight as the FIA issues a late punishment ruling
Verstappen’s hopes of winning the title may be severely damaged by the penalty that was given to him right after the race, dropping him to 10th place.
After the race, a visibly frustrated Verstappen took part in his post-race interview with Rachel Brookes, and was at odds as to why he was being questioned specifically about the collision with Russell.
What did Max Verstappen say after Spanish GP penalty?
Verstappen spoke to Sky Sports F1’s Brookes, first on whether his contact with George Russell was intentional: “Does it matter? Yeah, OK. That’s great. I prefer to speak about the race rather than one single moment,” he snapped.
On the move dropping him to 10th and hurting his championship chances: “If there are any. I think we are way too slow to fight for the title. That was clear again today.
“We tried to do a three-stop and that was quite good but we also needed it because we had quite a bit of degradation on the tyres.
Unfortunately, the safety car came out at the end and we ran out of tyres to use and the hard tyre was not the right tyre. When you only have six laps to go, everyone can go flat out and you are severely grip limited on the hard.”
On whether he should have not pitted when the safety car came out: “Fresh tyres make quite a bit of a difference. No one really expected the hard tyre would be so poor.
“Maybe it would have been better to stay out but that’s a lot easier to say now.”
Finally, the reigning champion refused to respond appropriately to Brookes’ claim that it was bad to see the shine taken off him for the move on Russell, saying: “Is it? That’s your opinion.”
How did George Russell respond?
“I was as surprised as you guys were. I’ve seen those sort of manoeuvres before on simulator games and go-karting but never in F1.
“Ultimately we came home in P4 and he came home in P10. I don’t really know what was going through his mind. It felt deliberate in the moment, so it felt surprising.”
On whether Verstappen should have been given a black flag and therefore disqualified, Russell’s measured verdict was: “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.”
Despite the pair’s heated history, Russell praised his rival somewhat, saying: “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.”
Asked whether his role as chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association would prompt talks over Verstappen’s actions, Russell said: “I’m too close to give my opinion on behalf of the drivers. It’s like in Austin last year, some of the best moves ever then you go to Mexico and he lets himself down a bit.
“You go to Imola with one of the best moves of all-time, then this happens. It cost him and his team a lot of points. Charles and I actually dropped off like a stone on those last two laps.
“He probably could have come back to fight for the podium, so I won’t lose any sleep. We have our own problems and that’s making our car go faster.”
The Red Bull star and his Mercedes rival will no doubt disagree with one another again throughout the season, potentially on track more than off track after their recent spat.
Russell’s point over Verstappen losing out more than he did however looks to remain incredibly prevalent as Mercedes managed to stay above Red Bull in the constructors’ standings whilst Verstappen’s team flail in fourth.
