George Russell says Max Verstappen’s contact with him at the Spanish Grand Prix “felt deliberate” and called the move “totally unnecessary”.
Verstappen and Russell collided with three laps remaining when battling for fourth, making contact at Turn Five, after the Red Bull driver had ben told to let Russell through.
The stewards gave Verstappen a 10-second time penalty for the incident, which dropped him from fifth to 10th, while also adding two penalty points on to his super licence – putting him one more away from an automatic race ban.
“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,” Russell told Sky Sports 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.”
Verstappen was asked if the move was intentional and said: “Does it matter? I prefer to speak about the race rather than one single moment.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen controversially collided with George Russell towards the end of the Spanish Grand Prix – earning him a 10-second penalty
Red Bull told Verstappen to let Russell through because of an earlier clash on the Safety Car restart when they touched wheels at Turn One, resulting in Verstappen cutting the chicane and keeping the position.
Verstappen eventually let Russell through after the pair collided for a second time but 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg suggested the reigning world champion should have been “black flagged”.
A dramatic restart at the Spanish GP sees Max Verstappen collide with Charles Leclerc and George Russell
Asked if he agreed with that verdict, Russell said: “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.”
Mercedes driver George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen gave their thoughts after the pair collided during Sunday’s race
Horner: Frustrated Verstappen was annoyed at Russell
Verstappen is now 49 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri, who won the Spanish Grand Prix.
Although Verstappen was not keen to discuss his incidents with Russell, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner thinks the decision to give the place back to Russell led 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.
Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc react to the Max Verstappen-George Russell collision at the Spanish GP
“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.”
Highlights of the Spanish Grand Prix from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
What did the Sky Sports F1 pundits think?
Sky Sports F1’s 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.”
Sky Sports F1’s 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.”
Sky Sports F1’s 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.”
The 2025 Formula 1 season pauses for breath after the European triple-header before resuming live on Sky Sports F1 with the Canadian Grand Prix from June 13-15. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime.
