George Russell condemned Max Verstappen’s late-race clash, accusing him of reckless driving and saying he only hurt his own result.
George Russell was visibly frustrated by Max Verstappen’s maneuver, as the Dutchman drove into him at the end of the race. The Mercedes F1 driver clearly accused his rival of hitting him on purpose and pointed out that it’s not the first time.
“My perspective is that he drove into me! Nobody knows why, or what the thinking behind it was… In the end I’m just happy I was able to continue without damage, and he punished himself more than he punished me,” said Russell with a slightly annoyed smile.
The journalist appeared surprised by the Briton’s comments, prompting Russell to continue the conversation: “Does that surprise you?… For the viewers, he shook his head! Anyway, that’s just how Max races.”
“He was fourth, I was fifth, I finished fourth, he finished tenth. I’m happy I finished the race, I don’t know what he was thinking because it cost him a lot of points, and it cost his team as well. There’s no need to talk about it. Thank you,” concluded Russell, cutting the interview short.
Later, Russell spoke to Sky F1 and again harshly criticized his rival’s move: “I was as surprised as you. I’ve seen that kind of move in video games and karting, but never in F1.”
For his part, Verstappen simply boycotted interviews with some TV networks such as Canal+.
Asked whether a black flag should have been shown, Russell avoided the question but lamented Verstappen’s recurring behavior: “It’s not for me to say. Right now, I’m not going to think about that because we have our own issues to fix. We’re trying to make our car faster.”
“The safety car at the end changed things. It’s up to the stewards to decide if it was deliberate or not. Max is an extraordinary driver and a lot of people admire him. It’s a real shame that things like this keep happening. It seems completely unnecessary and never seems to benefit Max.”
“It’s like Austin last year, some of the best overtakes, then you go to Mexico and he lets it slip a bit. You go to Imola with one of the best moves ever, and then this happens. It cost him a lot of points, for him and his team.”
“Charles and I dropped like a stone in the last two laps. He probably could have come back and fought for the podium, so I’m not going to rest on my laurels.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was on his way to a seventh-place finish before an engine failure, which capped off a difficult weekend: “I had an engine problem, it happened suddenly. It’s a shame, but these things can happen. The triple-header was very tough, we’ll start fresh and do better in Canada.”
“In qualifying, it felt good to get back into rhythm, and in the race I was close to George’s pace, but there are still some things to improve and the next race is in Canada, on a track I don’t know.”
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