"If felt deliberate": George Russell's verdict on Max Verstappen's controversial incident with the Mercedes driver

Mercedes driver George Russell feels that Max Verstappen's controversial incident with the driver felt deliberate, as the Dutch driver is now just one point away from getting banned. A late race safety car turned the entire race on its head, as before that it appeared that the Red Bull driver was destined for a podium.

With the safety car coming out late in the race, every driver jumped into the pits to change for fresh tires. Verstappen, however, was the only one who didn't have soft tires available in the top 10. As a result, the Dutch driver had to change to hard tires, and this was a major disadvantage.

The restart saw Verstappen have a moment at the beginning of the straight, which allowed Charles Leclerc to go through. Russell also ended up making slight contact with the Dutch driver, going off track as he took evasive action. A few laps later, Verstappen was told by Red Bull to give the position back to Russell, which infuriated the reigning champion.

In what appeared to be a moment of indecision, it appeared that Max Verstappen was first ceding ground to George Russell, but then at the very last moment, he would move over and make contact with the Mercedes driver. The Red Bull driver would be given a 10-second penalty and three F1 penalty points for the move, even though Nico Rosberg on the commentary advocated that the driver should have been black flagged.

Talking about the moment afterward, George Russell felt that it seemed intentional. He told Sky Sports:

"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."

When questioned if Max Verstappen should have been black-flagged, the Mercedes driver said:

"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."

He added:

"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."

George Russell feels Max Verstappen could have made up those places

A key detail that George Russell shared was that soon after he jumped Max Verstappen, both his tires and Charles Leclerc's tires fell off the cliff, and the duo was caught by the Red Bull driver at the end of the race. If Verstappen had kept his cool, he could have come back and overtaken both of them. Russell said:

"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 added:

"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."

Max Verstappen is now a whopping 49 points behind Oscar Piastri in the championship, and the hopes of putting together a title campaign do appear to be in jeopardy.