The best bit is, most of this stuff he is losing out on now and complaining about are rules that have been created because of him. Even the Russell one. He was ahead of the wing mirror so had the right to the corner. Still perplexed as to his anger with Charles.
Poll: Official 2025 Spanish Grand Prix Race Thread - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Race 9/24
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It’s clear as day to anyone with half a brain that he did it deliberately. You don’t get half a sentence by denying something when caught red handed.
You can take that view but the stewards didn't include that in their decision. Deliberate is a hard thing to demonstrate, and if the stewards didn't deem it so then they can't penalise for it. I think had it changed the result at all they might have looked into it more but as it is? Russell finished the race ahead of Max. Nothing was changed as the result of Max's wheel banging other than him being punted to the back of the points and close to a race ban.
One of them was cutting part of the track of the other could have seriously injured someone...
Cutting the track is not dangerous? Surely you're joking? Even when drivers go off by mistake, they're basically head down, good luck to the rest of the field, and rejoin the track.
Georges move in Monaco, while entertaining, was dangerous especially with no runoff. Alex's driving was also dangerous and should've been penalised.
I think that's about as close as you'll see a steward's decision get to saying a driver deliberately caused a crash unless the driver flat out admits to doing it.
I also think they'd painted themselves into a corner a little bit by dishing out the penalty quickly (usually a good thing) before they'd sat and analysed all the evidence and probably felt like they'd cause as many problems as they solved if they tried to revisit a penalty they'd already issued.
Got to say, and this in no way excuses Verstappen for the collision, Red Bull do kinda have to bear some responsibility here. They didn't need to order him to let Russell past, and that unnecessary and fairly dumb call is what put Verstappen firmly into his 'petulant ****' headspace. He was already in a bad way after getting jumped by Leclerc, and the team sealed his fate by piling on with the order to slow and let Russell overtake.
He's got to get better at regulating his emotional state before he hurts himself or someone else.
He's got to get better at regulating his emotional state before he hurts himself or someone else.
Teams are now between a rock and a hard place with giving places back. It was decided that its down to the teams to make this decision or there would be a penalty applied, which I think is 5 seconds, if the place was meant to be giving back.
Before the change it was the stewards who decided whether a car should give the place back and it was usually within 3 corners after making the decision?
Red bull obviously didn't want to risk a 5 second penalty.
I can't remember why the change was made?
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As I understood it he only had a new set of hard's left. That or a used set of softs. And on a safety car restart, as we saw further down the field the difference between used softs and anything new was huge. He would have gone even further backwards than he did on the hards.
They tried a 3 stopper because they knew they didn't have the pace of Maclaren so did something different.. fair play. It didn't work out though.
I did sort of enjoy the race, particularly Alonso's overtakes, but it wasn't anything fantastic. 4.5/10 for me.
General thoughts:
'Finally, the Red Bull driver's finish within 3 places of each other!'
General thoughts:
- Mega launch from Piastri, incredible start.
- Good from Lando, I think he played T1 and T2 sensibly after being jumped by Max and then it was always going to be tough to catch/pass in the same car + dirty air.
- Incredible from Hulkenberg. I'll always feel bitter than Renault refused to let him cancel his contract to not join Mercedes in 2017 when they signed Bottas instead, a big 'what could have been' moment.
- Comedy from Max, I know we should take it seriously but it was quite funny that it's always seemingly Russell involved.
- Poor from Hamilton & Ferrari. A little odd that Ferrari adjusted his front wing, don't tell him and then after he asks why the car suddenly has no rear and feels lighter they're like 'Ohhh we did change that, sorry lol'.
- I did find the constant Lawson lunges a bit odd, he just sent it into T1 every time and forced the other driver off, then they had to yield? He broke 2 of Albon's front wings, slightly odd but maybe something in the race directors notes that encouraged it.
'Finally, the Red Bull driver's finish within 3 places of each other!'
Even Stevie Wonder could see Max did it on purpose
Okay, they didn't want to risk a five second penalty. Instead they wind up a driver who they know is incredibly easy to wind up and cop a ten second penalty instead when the all-too inevitable collision occurs.
Just. Not. Smart
George has a bit of a rep for being a cry baby (not saying this is right) and may feel that it will do more damage to be the person to call him out, especially since they seem to have relatively recent beef. I think it all came from when one or the other held the other up in quali or something? Wasn't it even last season? I can't even remember. Max even said something like "bringing tissues next time" referring again to George being weak and a cry baby.
To be honest, my take on it is that yes, George is a bit of a moaner and very negative a lot of the time on team radio but then...most of the drivers can be to be fair.
This does not excuse calling out Max and making more of a thing of it. Max needs to be held to task. His behaviour is now stooped to bullying other fellow drivers in his comments and reactions and tries to play down very serious incidents. I think regardless of the above history George and Merc should push the FIA for further clarification as to why deliberately driving into someone at race speed is not deemed to be the worst possible form of behaviour a driver could do and hence a black flag or the worst penalty that could be applied, which I think is a 10 or 20 second stop go?
As someone said above, George got a drive through for deliberately breaking the rules at Monaco which makes a mockery of this one from Max. I can't think of an incident more worthy of a black flag as a result of a drivers actions on track, aside from the one in 2021 where someone brake tested Lewis at very high speed. Oh wait....that was Max too.
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I really hope that the next official thing we hear about this is that Mercedes are challenging the decision.
Soldato
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George and Merc have got bigger issues to worry about. Like driving a car with a now clearly catastrophic engine reliability issues.
Okay, they didn't want to risk a five second penalty. Instead they wind up a driver who they know is incredibly easy to wind up and cop a ten second penalty instead when the all-too inevitable collision occurs.
Just. Not. Smart
I think ultimately the problems all started on the last corner going onto the straight for the restart. Max drove offline which made his left tyres pickup the marbles and when applying full power for the straight he lost control of the car. This made him slow down the straight and then we all know what happened after that.
Having the hard tyres on the car may have annoyed him before the restart but him driving offline caused all his problems.
Onboard footage here:
www.skysports.com
Max Verstappen: Red Bull driver accepts blame for controversial clash with George Russell at Spanish Grand Prix
Max Verstappen and George Russell made contact twice during the latter stages of the Spanish Grand Prix; Verstappen has accepted blame for the second contact which Russell says felt deliberate; stewards gave Verstappen a 10-second time penalty for the incident and three penalty points
Sure, between frightening himself with that moment, Leclerc immediately seizing the chance to overtake, Russell then forcing him wide at T1, and having to put up with the slower hard compound tyre he'll have been pretty well hacked off. And then the team comes on the radio and says 'hey, drop back a place'.
So 'pretty well hacked off' turns into 'nigh-instant red mist', all-too predictably.
Easily driver of the day. Great racing and shows what he can do in the right situation.
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