George Russell says Max Verstappen threatened to crash him throughout final week’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen was sad with Russell after the qualifying session. Russell felt he was impeded by Verstappen driving slowly after Verstappen had accomplished his qualifying lap and complained in a gathering with the stewards. Verstappen, who had certified first forward of Russell in second, was given a one-place grid penalty and dropped to second on the grid behind Russell.
Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Russell stated that Verstappen instructed him after the stewards’ assembly that “he was going to purposefully exit of his method to crash into me and ‘put me on my f***ing head within the wall.'”
“Folks have been bullied by Max for years now, and you’ll’t query his driving talents. However he can not cope with adversity. Each time something has gone in opposition to him — Jeddah ’21, Brazil ’21 — he lashes out. Budapest this 12 months, the very first race the automobile wasn’t dominant, crashing into Lewis [Hamilton], slamming his workforce…
“For me, these feedback on Saturday night time and Sunday have been completely disrespectful and pointless. As a result of what occurs on observe, we struggle exhausting, that’s a part of racing. What occurs within the stewards’ room, you struggle exhausting, however it’s by no means private. However he’s taken it too far now.”
Absolutely recounting the interplay between the 2, Russell added: “[He said it] to me privately, straight out of the stewards. He stated, ‘I don’t know why you’ll need to screw me like this. I’m so disenchanted in you. I used to be going to not even race you tomorrow, I used to be going to allow you to by, however now if I’ve to, I’ll purposely exit of my method to put you in your f****ing head within the wall.’ So I don’t perceive why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that regard.”
Verstappen stated in Qatar that Russell was a special particular person in private conversations than he was in entrance of the cameras and that “I can’t stand that.” He additionally stated that he had “misplaced all respect” for Russell for advocating for a penalty for Verstappen.
Verstappen gained the race in Qatar after he took the lead on the primary lap. Russell fell to 3rd on the opening lap behind Verstappen and Lando Norris and went on to complete fourth.
Verstappen wrapped up his fourth consecutive world championship on Nov. 24 in Las Vegas. That clinch got here two races after Verstappen had been penalized twice for the way in which he raced Norris, his closest title rival, within the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix.
