“You need to black flag him”: Nico Rosberg blasts Max Verstappen for causing a collision with George Russell

Former world champion Nico Rosberg has reacted to Max Verstappen colliding with George Russell in the Spanish Grand Prix. After the safety car restart, the Dutchman was told to let Russell through because of a messy overtake. However, the team order led to the four-time world champion touching the Mercedes driver again, leading to criticism from Rosberg.

The final laps of the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix saw a safety car after Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes went into the gravel. Once the race restarted on lap 61, Verstappen was held off by Charles Leclerc. However, he went off the track and rejoined at P4 ahead of George Russell.

On team radio, Verstappen alleged that Russell had pushed him off, but Red Bull advised him to give the position back. However, Verstappen defied the orders and collided with the Mercedes driver again on turn 5 of lap 64.

This aggressive move led to criticism from former world champion Nico Rosberg with him saying that Max Verstappen deserved to be black flagged. On Sky Sports, 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. He just rams him, you need to black flag that right away."

Meanwhile, FIA stewards quickly noted the incident moments after the checkered flag was waved. Though Verstappen eventually gave the position back to Russell, the collision resulted in him getting a 10-second time penalty. The penalty dropped him down from P5 to P10, leading to a crucial loss of points.

Oscar Piastri, the championship leader, won the race and extended his lead. Verstappen, who was in P3 before the race, gained just a single point from the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix.

Interestingly, Verstappen is also under investigation for a collision with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at the safety car restart.

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Anthony Davidson feels Max Verstappen intentionally collided with George Russell

Max Verstappen at F1 Grand Prix of Spain - Source: Getty

Apart from Nico Rosberg, F1 pundit Anthony Davidson also blamed Max Verstappen and claimed the collision was intentional from the Dutchman's end. He added that the Red Bull intentionally slowed down, and instead of letting Russell by, he turned into him.

Talking to Sky Sports, he said:

"I don't understand why Max slows down after Turn 4. Then, suddenly decides, 'No, I'm not going to let him through.' It's almost he decides, 'No, I'm not going to let him by at all,' carries such excessive speed into the corner, and he's not out of control when doing this, and divebombs into the corner, hitting the Mercedes hard. George is immediately on the radio to say, 'What on earth was that?' I think it's intentional. And I don't like to see that. Everything up until that point, I can't blame Max for."

The collision cost Max Verstappen significantly, as he earned just a single point from this race.