In Lusail last weekend, Verstappen was given a one-place grid penalty for impeding Russell while both were on build laps in Qualifying 3.
The Red Bull Racing driver qualified on pole before the penalty promoted Russell to top spot.
Highly critical of his Mercedes rival at the time, Verstappen suggested Russell had attempted to game the system to have the Dutchman penalised.
A week on, the situation escalated as the pair took shots at one another through the media in Abu Dhabi.
“Even before I said a word in the stewards, he was swearing at the stewards,” Russell said on Thursday in response to comments made earlier in the day by Verstappen.
“He was so angry before I’d even spoken.
“As drivers, you fight hard on the track; you fight hard in the stewards, the same way as Max, the very next day, asked his team to look at Lando’s penalty through the Yellow Flag.
“That’s not personal, Max to Lando, that’s just racing. I do not see why he felt the need for this personal attack, and I’m not going to take it.”
Verstappen claims he was initially confused by the summons in Qatar.
With traffic around him, he reasoned he was forced to let others through while working to prepare his own lap before everything slowed up in front of him.
“Then I see someone flying in my mirror, acting like the most dangerous situation just happened, and that he almost killed himself or something,” the four-time world champion claimed.
“It was unbelievable. And we’re all on the slow lap. It’s not even like someone was on a fast lap.
“So when I got called to the stewards, it was a big surprise to me because I didn’t really impede anyone.”
Verstappen’s one place penalty was rationalised as needing to be more severe than the reprimand dished out to Yuki Tsunoda or Sergio Perez for impeding, but not a full three-place penalty given neither driver was on a fast lap. A one-place penalty was deemed an appropriate compromise.
That stewards’ meeting, described to Speedcafe as “spicy” by one source with first-hand knowledge of it, then spiralled as Verstappen publicly criticised what he believed was Russell’s duplicitous behaviour.
Privately, there are suggestions the conversation between the two was rather more abrupt.
“I’ve known Max for a long time. I know what he’s capable of,” Russell noted.
“He said to me he’s going to purposely go out of his way to crash into me, putting my f***ing head in the wall.
“I knew that was a bit of a heat of the moment thing but when I went to see him the next day at the driver’s parade, when Checo [Sergio Perez] was there, when Carlos [Sainz] was there, and we were joking around a little bit, I saw it in his eyes that he means it.
“I’ve got an eight-year-old nephew who’s just started go-karting, who watches all of my races, watches TikTok, watches YouTube.
“For a world champion to come out saying he’s going to go out of his way to crash into someone and put them on their effing head, that is not the sort of role model we should be.
“I honestly think it could have been anybody in that stewards’ room and Max would have reacted the same way,” Russell added.
“He’s made it personal when there was no need to make it personal.
“He was wound up and frustrated before I even spoke in that steward room, and I’m confident, no matter who it would have been sat on the opposite chair who just said the facts in the steward’s room, he would react to the exact same way.”
Russell paints a different version of events to those told by Verstappen who claims the Mercedes driver was lobbying to have him penalised.
He also stands by his comments in Qatar, going so far as to suggest he should have said more.
“No regrets at all, because I meant everything I said, and it’s still the same,” Verstappen insisted.
“I still can’t believe that someone can be like that in a stewards’ room.
“For me, that was so unacceptable because we’re all racing drivers, we all have a lot of respect for each other.
“We even play sports together; you travel together.
“And of course, you have moments where you get together, you crash, or whatever you’re not happy.
“In my whole career, I’ve never experienced what I have experienced in the stewards’ room in Qatar, and for me, that was really unacceptable.”
While Verstappen has doubled down on his position from a week ago, Russell has refused to concede the issue.
The Mercedes driver implied his 27-year-old rival is a bully who had become accustomed to getting his way because he’d never been challenged.
“I think he’s been enabled because nobody has stood up to him,” Russell reasoned.
“Lewis stood up to him in 2021 and Lewis lost that championship unfairly.
“Could you imagine the roles being reversed? Max losing that championship in the manner that Lewis lost that championship.
“I mean, [former race director Michael] Masi would be fearing for his life.
“Some of the recent incidents, he has been punished, and he punished himself; Mexico with the reckless overtakes; Budapest with the reckless overtake.
“But it’s just in the past, he has such a dominant car he’s not been in this position.
“I think the FIA are pretty on it now and I don’t think much needs to change from their viewpoint because he’s going to punish himself one way or another.”
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