Max Verstappen is one point away from a race ban as Red Bull driver handed 3 F1 penalty points for George Russell collision

Max Verstappen has been handed three penalty points on his super licence following a controversial collision with George Russell during the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. The decision brings his total to 11 penalty points within 12 months, just one short of an automatic race ban.

The incident unfolded on lap 64 during a safety car restart. Verstappen, who had just been tapped by Russell, took to the escape road to avoid contact. Believing he had gained an unfair advantage, Red Bull instructed the Dutchman to relinquish fourth place back to the Mercedes driver, an order that visibly angered the four-time world champion.

After letting Russell through, Max Verstappen appeared to swerve aggressively back at the Briton moments later, making contact. The move prompted the stewards to issue a 10-second time penalty, demoting him to tenth place in the final classification.

In their ruling, the FIA stewards deemed the collision to be 'undoubtedly' caused by Max Verstappen and confirmed the addition of three penalty points to his licence. Notably, the stewards clarified that the four-time world champion was not required to give the place back, meaning the initial instruction from Red Bull was incorrect and may have inadvertently triggered the escalation.

The incident places the reigning champion under significant scrutiny. One more penalty point would result in a one-race ban, something no active world champion has faced in the sport’s modern era.

Detailing the entire decision on the collision between Max Verstappen and Russell, the FIA document said:

“The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, and in-car video evidence. From the radio communications, it was clear that the driver of Car 1 was asked by his team to ‘give the position back’ to Car 63 for what they perceived to be an earlier breach by Car 1 for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage (in fact, we had later determined that we would take no further action in relation to that incident).”

The statement further stated:

“The driver of Car 1 was clearly unhappy with his team’s request to give the position back. At the approach to Turn 5, Car 1 significantly reduced its speed thereby appearing to allow Car 63 to overtake. However, after Car 63 got ahead of Car 1 at the entry of Turn 5, Car 1 suddenly accelerated and collided with Car 63. The collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1. We therefore imposed a 10 second time penalty on Car 1.”

Nico Rosberg believes Max Verstappen should have got a black flag for ‘ramming’ into George Russell

Nico Rosberg criticized Max Verstappen’s actions during the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, suggesting the Red Bull driver should have received a black flag for intentionally colliding with George Russell. During post-race analysis on Sky Sports F1, the 2016 World Champion expressed that the current world champion’s move appeared deliberate and fell outside acceptable racing conduct.

Rosberg also held Red Bull partly responsible, stating that the team’s instruction to give the place back to Russell contributed to escalating the situation.

The incident occurred on lap 64, shortly after a safety car restart. Russell tapped the Dutchman while attempting an overtake, causing the Red Bull driver to run wide and rejoin the track ahead of the Mercedes. Red Bull then instructed Max Verstappen to return the position, a decision which seemed to frustrate the reigning champion. Moments after letting Russell pass, the Red Bull champion swerved into the Mercedes driver, in what was deemed a retaliatory move.

Rosberg also noted that Russell’s initial overtake attempt was poorly executed, as the Mercedes driver oversteered into Verstappen, but maintained that the Red Bull driver’s response was unacceptable regardless of the circumstances.

Reacting to the Max Verstappen incident on live commentary, Rosberg said:

“Wow, that's bad bad bad. He just rammed him full on. You need to black flag him. Max was right in the first instance and then the team went against Max and caused him to boil over.”

Further analyzing it on Sky Sports after the race, he added:

“The first one was George's fault because he went in too hot, oversteered out and tapped Max who then had to use the escape road. That's not the way to do the pass. That's something which is extremely unacceptable and I think the rules would be a black flag yes. If you wait for your opponent to bang into him, that's a black flag.”

Max Verstappen finished tenth, which earned him just one point, compared to 12 points had he held on to fourth or 10 points for a fifth place in a worse case scenario. Amid a combination of errors from both driver and team, the Dutchman walks away from the Spanish Grand Prix with only a single point to his name.

In the drivers’ standings, Oscar Piastri now leads the championship with 186 points, followed by Lando Norris on 176. Max Verstappen sits third with 137 points.

Heading into the Spanish GP, the Red Bull driver was 25 points adrift of Piastri and 22 behind Norris. With the latest result, those gaps have widened significantly, to 49 points and 39 points respectively. The growing deficit makes Verstappen’s title defense even more challenging, especially as Red Bull continues to struggle with ongoing performance issues.