'It felt very deliberate' - Russell on Verstappen collision in Spain

George Russell says Max Verstappen’s driving that saw the pair collide late in the Spanish Grand Prix “felt very deliberate” and lets the four-time world champion down.

Verstappen was voicing his frustration over team radio at being told to give a position up to Russell, having been forced wide by the Mercedes driver at Turn 1. The move came after a late safety car period where Verstappen was given new hard tires as the only set he had remaining and left him struggling to defend as he slipped out of the podium places.

The Dutchman appeared to heed the request from Red Bull and slowed on the exit of Turn 4, with Russell sticking to the racing line and moving ahead towards Turn 5, but then Verstappen accelerated and did not initially turn in for the next corner, leading to contact.

“I don't really know, to be honest,” Russell said. “Probably as surprising for you guys as it was for me. I don't know what he was thinking, but in the end I finished fourth, he finished 10th, so a bit of an unnecessary maneuver.

“Felt very deliberate, to be honest. It's something that I've seen numerous times in sim racing and on iRacing. Never have I seen it in a Formula 1 race, so that was something new. It's a bit of a shame because Max is clearly one of the best drivers in the world, but maneuvers like that are just totally unnecessary and sort of lets him down.

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“It's a shame for all the young kids looking up, aspiring to be Formula 1 drivers. As I said, I don't know what he was thinking. In the end, I'm not going to lose sleep over it because I ultimately benefited from those antics.”

Russell says Verstappen should have been given more than a 10-second time penalty for the incident if the move was an intentional attempt to make contact.

“Honestly, I need to look back on it," he said. "If it was truly deliberate, then absolutely [he should have been disqualified], because you cannot deliberately crash into another driver. We're putting our lives on the line. We're fortunate the cars are as safe as they are these days, but we shouldn't take it for granted.

“It's down to the stewards to determine if it's deliberate or not. If they do think it's deliberate, then they need to have a hard press of them. But as I said, I'm not too bothered about it because that's his problem; that's the stewards' problem.

“Ultimately, we were destined to finish P4, I felt, although I probably should have been behind McLaren [and] Max. That's just where we are as a team.”