Russell criticises Verstappen after deliberate crash: 'Just a shame'

George Russell was left disappointed more than angry at Max Verstappen's antics during the Spanish Grand Prix, as the latter received a ten-second time penalty for intentionally colliding with the Mercedes driver. 

While the pair finished in fourth and fifth on the road after the 66-lap event, Verstappen's penalty demoted him to P10.

It was a quiet race for Russell, who didn't have the pace to keep up with both McLarens, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Verstappen. However, a late Safety Car bunched up the pack, and the Mercedes driver was suddenly hot on the heels of a slow Verstappen on hard tyres.

It all came to a head between the two drivers on lap 64 of the Grand Prix, when Verstappen was asked by his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase to cede a position to Russell after an earlier off-track excursion.

"It felt deliberate"

Verstappen reacted in anger to the call from his team, slowing down to seemingly concede fourth position to Russell but then speeding back up and banging wheels with the British driver, seemingly in an act of retaliation.

The four-time World Champion eventually let Russell through later on the same lap, and the latter kept the Red Bull driver behind to clinch P4 and 12 valuable points.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, Russell stated that he was surprised by Verstappen's antics on track.

He said: "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," admitted the 27-year-old.

• Read Also: Perfect Piastri leads McLaren 1-2 in Spain - Verstappen penalised

When asked if Verstappen should have been disqualified for what many deem a deliberate collision instigated by the Dutchman, Russell chose to refrain from voicing his opinion.

He continued: "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," added Russell.

"It cost him and his team a lot of points"

Russell alluded to previous on-track incidents involving Verstappen, claiming that the defending Champion lets himself down by letting tensions boil over.

The Mercedes driver stated: "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 [over it]. We have our own problems and that's making our car go faster," Russel concluded.

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