Verstappen “would have said even more” about “lying” Russell

Max Verstappen has doubled down on his criticism of George Russell following their altercation after Qatar Grand Prix qualifying.

Verstappen and Russell generally enjoyed cordial relations thus far, but that changed at the Qatar Grand Prix when Verstappen felt Russell was trying to stitch him up in front of the FIA race stewards and land the Dutchman a penalty for impeding him while on a warm-up lap during Saturday’s qualifying session.

Verstappen ended up with a one-place penalty, which saw him lose his pole for the grand prix to the Mercedes driver. But he then retaliated on Sunday by making a better start than Russell and taking the lead, before going on to claim his ninth grand prix victory of the season.

Afterwards Verstappen said he had lost all respect for Russell for the way he was actively trying to get the Dutchman in trouble, with his team boss Christian Horner labelling Russell as “quite hysterical” over the Qatar issue.

Asked in Abu Dhabi if tension had cooled and Verstappen thought any differently about his row with Russell, the four-time world champion instead doubled down on his criticism.

“No, no regrets at all, because I meant everything I said and it’s still the same,” Verstappen said on Thursday. “If I had to do it again, maybe I would have said even more, knowing the outcome of the race result.

“I still can’t believe that someone can be like that in the 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.”

Verstappen claimed Russell was “lying” to the stewards about what he was doing on the outlap, with the Dutchman explaining he was just trying to stay out of trouble now he already has the world championship in the bag at the end of a long season.

“It’s nothing to do with him being the director of the GPDA,” he said. “I just never expected someone to really try and actively get someone a penalty that badly and lying about why I was doing what I was doing. But clearly it had an influence on [the stewards]. It was just really not nice and actually very shocking what was going on there.”

Speaking about the incident, Verstappen added: “Everything slowed up in front, because there were quite a few cars, and I slowed down as well because I don’t want to then speed up and try to ruin their preparation as well.

“Then I see someone flying in my mirror, acting like the most dangerous situation just happened and he almost killed himself or something. It was unbelievable. And we’re all on a slow lap, it’s not even like someone was on the fast lap.

“I don’t know how the [stewards] came to that conclusion. By actually trying to stay out of trouble, you put yourself in trouble. And also at that point of the season I don’t want to be fighting with anyone when they come to me after qualifying saying: ‘Why did you ruin my lap. What are you doing?’

“I don’t want to put myself in that position. But basically, by doing that, I put myself in that position where I had to go to the stewards.”

Photos from Abu Dhabi GP Thursday