Max Verstappen made clear there is no love lost between him and George Russell following a controversial incident in the qualifying session of the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday.
Why Max Verstappen Has ‘Lost All Respect’ For George Russell.
The Dutchman took pole-position ahead of the Mercedes driver, but was handed a one one-place penalty for driving “unnecessarily slowly on a cool-down lap.”
With Verstappen driving slowly in a bid to cool his tyres towards the end of Q3, he and Russell tangled at Turn 12, with the Briton forced onto the gravel as a result.
The Mercedes driver complained over the radio that Verstappen’s behaviour had been “extremely dangerous” and the pair argued their case with the stewards at the end of the qualifying session.
The stewards sided with Russell and handed the reigning world champion a one-place penalty.
While the sanction ultimately proved inconsequential as he won the race on Sunday ahead of Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri, Verstappen didn’t mince his words when it came to Russell, who finished fourth.
“I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards’ room, what was all going on,” the Dutchman said.
“Honestly, very disappointing because I think we’re all here, we respect each other a lot and, of course, I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life, in my career with people that have raced, and I’ve never seen someone trying to s***w someone over that hard.
“And that for me […] I lost all respect [for Russell].”
Max Verstappen fires back at George Russell
The four-time world champion was even more blunt when speaking to to Dutch TV broadcaster Viaplay.
“He [Russell] always acts extremely polite in front of the cameras but if you sit together with him personally, he’s a completely different person,” he said.
“I truly can’t stand that. Then you might as well get lost. I don’t want anything to do with you.”
Ahead of the race, Russell said he knew Verstappen was upset at being penalized and indicated he expected the Red Bull driver to be aggressive at the first corner.
I know he is, he already told me,” he told British broadcaster Sky Sports F1.
“So it’s going to be an interesting Turn 1, but at the end of the day, trying to focus on ourselves.”
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Verstappen beat Russell into Turn 1 and never came under pressure from Russell, securing his ninth win of the season and a second victory in the past three races after triumphing in Brazil at the beginning of last month.
Due to the timings of interviews after the race, Russell was not asked about Verstappen’s comments.
According to BBC Sport, however, Mercedes is adamant more details of the story are yet to be disclosed.
Russell is expected to be asked about his argument with Verstappen when he faces the media on Thursday ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Meanwhile, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed the penalty was “more based on hysterics” than anything concrete.
“I did feel that George [Russell] and Mercedes made a big meal out of it, and it was unprecedented on a slow lap for Max [Verstappen] to end up with a one-place penalty,” he said.
In their ruling, the stewards noted Russell was right in saying Verstappen should not have been on the racing line while driving slowly.
However, they also took into account the Mercedes driver could clearly see the Red Bull ahead as a mitigating factor for Verstappen.
The stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly [Verstappen] did not comply with the race director’s event notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances,” the ruling read.
“It was obvious [Verstappen] was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see [Russell] approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times while on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12.
Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap.
“Had [Russell] been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three-grid position penalty.
“However, in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that [Russell] had clear visibility of [Verstappen].”
