In the closing laps at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Verstappen appeared to deliberately drive into Russell at Turn 5, frustrated after being told by his team to let the Mercedes driver through.
This followed an earlier incident between the pair in which Russell collided with Verstappen while attempting to overtake for fourth at Turn 1, forcing the Dutchman off track as he retained his position.
A furious Verstappen questioned why he had to give the position back, believing Russell was at fault. After the race, stewards confirmed Verstappen would not have been penalised had he kept the place.
Instead, Verstappen received a 10-second time penalty for his latter incident with Russell, dropping him from fifth to tenth, along with three penalty points on his super licence, leaving the world champion just one point away from a race ban.
Verstappen’s actions were slammed by 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, who, during his Sky Sports F1 commentary, immediately called for Verstappen to be parked by race officials.
“He needs to get black flagged,” Rosberg said. “He just crashed into Russell on purpose just to prove a point. That was horrible. That did not look good.”
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“That’s bad, bad, bad. That is seriously bad.
“Max was in the right in the first instance and then the team went against Max and they caused him to boil over.”
A black flag is used to disqualify a driver from a race. When shown it requires the driver to immediately return to their pit garage.
George Russell echoed Rosberg’s frustration, questioning why a driver of Verstappen’s calibre needed to resort to such tactics.
“Max is really one of the best drivers in the world, but manoeuvres like that are just totally unnecessary and sort of lets him down,” he said post-race.
“It’s a shame for all the young kids looking up aspiring to be Formula One drivers. I don’t know what he was thinking.”
Verstappen dismissed the criticism, brushing off both Rosberg and Russell’s comments.
“He (Russell) has his view. I have my view,” he said. “That’s his (Rosberg) opinion. Everyone can have his opinion.”
When asked by Sky Sports whether the contact was deliberate, Verstappen replied, “does it matter?”, before later saying, “No, I think it was a misjudgment.”
He added that he wouldn’t seek out Russell to discuss the incident and expressed no regrets for what happened.
“I think in life you shouldn’t regret too many things,” Verstappen said. “In life you shouldn’t regret too many things. You only live once.”
The incident added a fiery finish to the Spanish Grand Prix, with Verstappen once again under scrutiny for his aggressive tactics that could soon lead to a race ban.
But what do you think? Should Verstappen have been black-flagged for his clash with George Russell? Vote now in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
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