Verstappen 'let himself down' with Russell collision

George Russell said Max Verstappen "let himself down" by appearing to drive deliberately into his Mercedes during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Verstappen received a 10-second penalty for the incident following the collision with the Briton's car.

It dropped the Dutchman from fifth to 10th in the final result, leaving him 49 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren, who won the race from team-mate Lando Norris.

Russell said: "Totally unnecessary and sort of lets him down. I don't know what he was thinking.

"It doesn't really make sense to deliberately crash into somebody and risk damaging your own car, risk a penalty.

"In the end, I'm not going to lose sleep over it because I ultimately benefited from those antics."

Verstappen responded that he would "bring some tissues next time", adding: "He has his view, I have my view."

He was reluctant to discuss the incident in detail, but he did say that it was "a misjudgement".

He was also given three penalty points on his licence. That takes him to 11, one short of a race ban.

He will have to keep his nose clean over the next two races in Canada and Austria, after which some points come off because they go beyond their year's expiry, if he is not to be forced to sit out a grand prix.

In the clash at Turn Five, stewards decided Verstappen had "significantly reduced (his) speed thereby appearing to allow [Russell] to overtake" but that once Russell was ahead Verstappen "suddenly accelerated and collided with [Russell]".

Russell said: "You cannot deliberately crash into another driver. You know, we're putting our lives on the line. We're fortunate the cars are as safe as they are these days. But we shouldn't take it for granted.

"It's down to the stewards to determine if it's deliberate or not. If they do think it's deliberate, then they need to have a hard precedent.

"Max is such an amazing driver and so many people look up to him. It's a shame that something like that continues to occur."

Verstappen, who did surrender the position later in the same lap, said he had no regrets about his conduct.

"In life you shouldn't regret too many things," he said. "You only live once."

Piastri said: "I need a bit more context on what happened [before commenting], but obviously it was not exactly a small touch. I don't have that much more, but it obviously didn't look great."

Verstappen and Russell crossed swords during an extraordinary final five laps after a late safety car.

Until then, Verstappen had been on course for a strong third place, after challenging the McLarens on a three-stop strategy, compared to their two.

When the safety car was deployed, all the leaders - and most of the rest of the field - pitted for fresh soft tyres. But because of their three-stop strategy, Red Bull's choices were limited.

They had to choose between leaving Verstappen out on his soft tyres, on which he had done eight racing laps; or pitting, for either another set of softs that had done one qualifying lap and the in and out-laps, some practice starts, and the laps to the grid, or a new set of the hard-compound tyres.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner itted that in hindsight, the best choice would have been to leave him out.

This would have put Verstappen in the lead. He would almost certainly have lost out to the McLaren drivers and perhaps Ferrari's Charles Leclerc but that would have left him fourth, one place better than he finished on the road before his penalty.

Instead, Red Bull brought him for the fresh hard tyres, which most teams avoided throughout the weekend.

Verstappen questioned the decision upon returning to the track, and then nearly lost control in a massive moment on the exit of the final corner on the restart as he fought to keep pace with the cars on grippier tyres around him.

He was immediately ed by Leclerc on the straight, the two cars lightly touching as their trajectories converged, and then by Russell into the first corner, where they banged wheels.

Verstappen accused Russell of barging him off the track, and was also upset about the Leclerc incident. But after stewards launched an investigation into him leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Red Bull decided to ask him to let Russell by, to avoid a penalty.

Verstappen argued against it, but was told by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that it was "the rules".

Horner itted Verstappen was "obviously upset and annoyed" and "frustrated" but said they would discuss the matter internally.

Verstappen said that he felt the "biggest issue" was with F1's racing guidelines.

"What is allowed, what isn't, is not very natural," Verstappen said. "And that is quite frustrating. And of course, sometimes it works for you, sometimes it works against you, and today that worked against me."

According to the guidelines, Russell was in theory entitled to the corner, because he was more or less completely alongside Verstappen - the rules say that a driver overtaking on the inside has to have his car's front axle at least level with the wing mirror of the one on the outside to be given space.

But the stewards cited another clause in those rules to say that Verstappen would have been entitled to keep the position, because Russell had "momentarily lost control, forcing (Verstappen) wide".

Stewards took no further action over the incident with Leclerc on the straight because "both cars were moving slightly towards each other in the middle of the track and a minor collision occurred as a result.

"Both drivers were of the view that this was an avoidable collision and could potentially have resulted in a major crash but neither driver was wholly or predominantly to blame."

Leclerc said: "Max wanted to bring me towards the inside where there's all the [torn-up used tyre] rubber, so I didn't want to go too much there. So, I was trying to push him to the left. There was a little bit of but, fortunately for us, no consequences."

This is not the first time Verstappen and Russell have been involved in controversy.

They had a major row, and exchanged public insults, after the Qatar Grand Prix last year. That was over an incident in which Verstappen felt Russell had overplayed his hand with the stewards in seeking a penalty for his rival after an incident in qualifying.

Before that, there was a clash during the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after which they again insulted each other publicly.

On Sunday, Verstappen said he had no interest in discussing the incident with Russell. "I have nothing to say," he said.

And it's not the first time Verstappen has appeared to let his emotions get the better of him in the car - in last year's Mexico City Grand Prix, he was given two separate 10-second penalties for two incidents on the same lap with Norris.

After that, he also did not want to discuss the incidents with the media.

In these situations, it seems Verstappen's competitive instinct - which is intense - clouds his judgement, and overrides his usual desire to maximise every result.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said: "The great ones, whether it's in motor racing or in other sports, you just need to have the world against you and perform at the highest possible level.

"That's why sometimes these greats don't recognise that actually the world is not against you, it's just you who has made a mistake or you've screwed up."

This incident could have significant consequences for Verstappen's season.

He was already fighting a difficult battle against two drivers performing strongly in a McLaren that has a higher average performance ceiling than the Red Bull, even if Verstappen has been able to challenge them on certain types of circuits.

Until now, he has stayed in touch by maximising his results, including two superb victories, in Japan and at Imola.

The Suzuka win was founded on a breathtaking pole lap, perhaps one of the greatest ever, and the second on an overtaking move on Piastri into the first corner that Russell, in the midst of his criticisms of Verstappen after the Spanish race, called "one of the best moves that we've all seen in a long time".

That had limited Verstappen's deficit in the championship to 22 points heading to Spain.

Even so, when he arrived in Barcelona, he said the championship "doesn't really feel like a fight".

Now, he has taken an action, influenced by a set of circumstances not all of which were in his control, that has made that more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Verstappen's response to that?

"I never said that I was in the championship fight, first of all," he said.

"Every race so far, it's been tough. When they get their things right, they're unbeatable. That's quite clear this season."