©RedBull
Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix ended with more questions than answers for Max Verstappen, after a controversial late-race collision with George Russell left the four-time world champion penalized –and on the defensive.
The clash unfolded just after a safety car period in the closing laps. Verstappen had been instructed by Red Bull to hand back fourth place to Russell, following an earlier run-off at Turn 1 where the Dutchman had rejoined ahead the Briton.
But what followed raised more than a few eyebrows: Verstappen appeared to slow on the approach to Turn 5 as if complying, only to stere his car straight on and into the Mercedes as Russell pulled alongside.
The stewards predictably took a dim view of the move, handing Verstappen a 10-second time penalty that dropped him from fifth to tenth – an agonizing end to an already frustrating race.
When pressed by Sky F1 after the race on whether his controversial move on Russell was deliberate, Verstappen offered a cryptic – and defiant – response.
“Does it matter?” he fired back.
Reminded that such an incident very much does matter to fans and viewers, Verstappen doubled down: “Yeah, okay. That's great. I prefer to speak about the race than one single moment.”
Asked if his move had been triggered by mounting frustration throughout the race – particularly the puzzling decision by Red Bull to put him on the hard tyres late in the race – Verstappen simply said: “No.”
When told that moments like this could tarnish a driver’s image, especially coming just two weeks after his thrilling win over Oscar Piastri at Imola, Verstappen met the suggestion with cool indifference.
“Is it [so]?” he replied, followed by a curt: Yeah, okay, well that's your opinion. We will leave it there.”
Clearly uninterested in rehashing the incident, Verstappen shut the door on further elaboration. But the silence spoke volumes.
While Verstappen’s confrontation with Russell dominated headlines, the Red Bull driver’s frustrations were already boiling over due to a strategic misfire.
After pitting under the safety car, Verstappen rejoined the track with hard tyres – by far the slowest compound in play, and a move that left him vulnerable in the final six-lap sprint.
©RedBull
“We tried to do three stops and it was quite good but we also needed it because we actually had quite a bit of degradation on the tyres so that was good,” he explained.
“Unfortunately, of course, the safety car came out in the end and we basically ran out of the tyres at the end and the hard tyre was clearly not the tyre.”
As he limped home on degrading rubber, Verstappen was reeled in and passed by Charles Leclerc and Russell – before the incident that would undo his race entirely.
Worse still, Verstappen admitted the title fight may be slipping from his grasp. After another commanding McLaren 1-2, with Oscar Piastri extending his championship lead, Verstappen offered a sobering assessment of Red Bull’s current form.
“If there are any [title chances]. I think we are way too slow anyway to fight for the title. That was clear again today,” he said.
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He did, however, question whether Red Bull might have been better off not pitting under the safety car at all.
“We have to look at it again. Of course, new tyres or at least fresh tyres, they make quite a bit of difference as well.
“No one maybe expected that the hard tyre was so poor but when it was only six laps maybe it would have been better to stay out but of course that's really easy for me to say now.”
Verstappen’s evasiveness about the Russell clash will keep tongues wagging for days, but the bigger worry for Red Bull? Their once-dominant car no longer looks like the class of the field. And the Dutchman knows it.
Furthermore, Verstappen was handed 3 penalty points on his superlicence, bringing his total tally up to 11 points or one point short of an outright race ban. The Red Bull charger will need to be on his best behaviour for the next two races at least, after which his rolling 12-month total will begin to partially reset.
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