Mercedes driver George Russell has said that he was ‘a bit surprised’ that Max Verstappen took accountability for the contact between the two cars in the latter stages of the Spanish Grand Prix almost two weeks ago.
The British driver was under the impression that Verstappen was handing him the position back after being told to do so by his race engineer, but the Dutchman suddenly accelerated and the pair bashed wheels with notable force.
Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident and also had three penalty points added to his super license. That means he is now one penalty point away from a race ban, as long as that penalty point comes this weekend in Canada or next weekend in Austria. After the Austrian Grand Prix, two points are wiped from the license and Verstappen has a little more breathing room.
Russell thinks a ban would be fair
Speaking to F1TV ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Russell admitted that a ban for Verstappen would not be unfair given that is why the rules are in place.
“If he gets to 12 points it [a ban] wouldn’t be unjust. At the end of the day, that’s why the penalty points are there. If you keep driving recklessly you will accumulate points, and get punished with a race ban. You’ve got it in your own hands and it doesn’t go without risk,” Russell said.
The Mercedes man and Verstappen have had plenty of run-ins in the past and certainly don’t appear to be friends, but Russell did say that he doesn’t believe Verstappen intentionally hit him but he was surprised by the admission of guilt: “He was trying to run me off the road. I don’t think he was trying to intentionally crash into me. He wanted to just sort of scare me a bit, but he just misjudged it. Again, it wasn’t going to scare me, it was just all a bit surprising.
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“I’m not looking for an apology. His actions cost him and they benefited me, so I should be almost thanking him. Obviously I’d be feeling very differently if it took me out of the race. But it is good to see that he took accountability. I was a bit surprised about that.”
Choosing to see the funny side of the situation, Russell suggested that Verstappen needs to be reminded who the boss is, saying: “That’s why I believe he wasn’t intentionally trying to crash into me. He was just trying to get his elbows out and show who’s boss. But he got it wrong. Jos [Verstappen’s father] is the boss!
“I’m going to continue racing exactly the same way because at the end of the day that’s what I did last week and I benefited from it.”
In a further attempt to downplay the idea of genuine dislike between the two drivers, Russell told a story about them bumping into one another during their recent weekend off.
“We bumped into each other at the airport on Sunday morning when I was going to Roland Garros. To be honest, I totally forgot about Barcelona because he was there with his newborn [baby], and we were at the security machine. He just had a quick chat and then he was busy folding the pram down to put it through the machine,” Russell explained.
