George Russell says Max Verstappen threatened to crash him during last week’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen was dissatisfied with Russell after the qualifying session. Russell felt he was being hampered by Verstappen driving slowly after Verstappen completed his qualifying lap and complained in a conversation with the stewards. Verstappen, who had qualified first ahead of Russell in second place, was given a one-place grid penalty and dropped to second on the grid behind Russell.
On Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Russell said Verstappen told him after the stewards’ meeting that “he would deliberately go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my damn head against the wall’.”
From Racer:
“People have been bullied by Max for years and you cannot doubt his driving skills. But he cannot deal with setbacks. Whenever something goes against him – Jeddah ’21, Brazil ’21 – he lashes out. This year in Budapest, the very first race, the car was not dominant and crashed into Lewis [Hamilton]beating down his team…
“To me, those comments on Saturday evening and Sunday were completely disrespectful and unnecessary. Because what happens on the track, we fight hard, that’s part of racing. You fight hard for what happens in the stewards’ room, but it is never personal. But now he goes too far.”
Russell recounted the interaction between the two in full, adding: “[He said it] for me personally, straight from the stewards. He said, “I don’t know why you would want to fuck me like that. I’m so disappointed in you. I wouldn’t even race you tomorrow, I’d let you pass, but if I have to now, I’ll purposely go out of my way to put your damn head against the wall. ‘ So I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that respect.”
Verstappen said in Qatar that Russell was a different person in personal conversations than he was in front of the cameras and that “I can’t stand that.” He also said he had “lost all respect” for Russell for calling for Verstappen to be punished.
Verstappen won the race in Qatar after taking the lead on the first lap. Russell fell to third place behind Verstappen and Lando Norris on the opening lap and finished fourth.
Verstappen completed his fourth consecutive world championship on November 24 in Las Vegas. That victory came two races after Verstappen was twice penalized for the way he raced against Norris, his biggest title rival, in the Mexico City Grand Prix.
