Our verdict on Verstappen's hugely controversial Russell clash

Max Verstappen’s bizarre clash with George Russell at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix ignited fresh controversy around the Formula 1 world champion’s driving.

Red Bull had just asked Verstappen to hand fourth place to Russell, as he had retained it by going across the Turn 1 run-off in an earlier incident. Verstappen appeared to slow to do so, then attacked the corner and hit the Mercedes, for which he earned a 10-second penalty.

Here are our team’s snap verdicts on the extraordinary incident and all the other ways Verstappen’s promising race fell apart.

This is part of who Verstappen is

Scott Mitchell-Malm

Verstappen's frustration in that frenzied final stint was understandable, and completely justified. His seeming retaliation on Russell was not. 

This is how Verstappen is wired, and it is the same mentality that drives the very best of him. You can't have the Max that dominates grand prix racing almost at will at times, without the Max that does...well, this.

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And that's neither a criticism or a defence. It's just how it is. And it will hurt Verstappen once or twice a season, every season, when circumstances combine to leave him a little frazzled, on the back foot, and feeling quite hard done by.

Verstappen's way of lashing out in such moments is certainly at the more aggressive, self-defeating end of the spectrum. But he won't change. And Red Bull knows that, hence one of its tasks is to try to mitigate the moments where Max is almost uncontrollable. 

Putting him on a hiding to nothing on the hards for that final stint, even if the team had no other reasonable choice (which is debatable as of right now), surely meant Red Bull knew it was potentially lighting the blue touch paper. 

Verstappen went too far - but what was Red Bull doing?

Gary Anderson

Verstappen is always a bit near the mark when it comes to his level of aggressiveness but today it went just that little bit over the top.

In my opinion his touch with Charles Leclerc at the restart on the main straight was a little bit of both of them. At that speed that sort of touch can very easily turn into an aeroplane accident so both drivers need to remember they are setting an example to younger up-and-coming drivers.

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His touch with Russell in Turn 1 was simple defending but Verstappen did gain a position so, as his team instructed, he needed to give the place back.

However, his second touch - or should I say hit - with Russell was definitely well and truly over what is acceptable. Yes, a 10-second penalty moved him from fifth to 10th so lost him nine points but does he really care about that? No, he wants to win. But sometimes you have to make sure you take home as many points as possible.

My big question is about what led to all this.

Red Bull had already committed to a three-stop race and having pitted at the end of lap 47 of 66, did Verstappen really need to pit with the safety car at the end of lap 55? He and the team saw that both McLarens were coming in and he only had eight laps on that set of soft tyres and on top of that Red Bull now only had hard tyres to fit.

As it turned out the safety car didn't come in until the end of lap 60. If he had tried to survive on that set of soft tyres he would only have had six laps to go, which I don’t think would have been a problem for him and if he had kept his nose clean he might just have won the race.

I suppose hindsight is 20-20.

Verstappen was petulant and the penalty was lenient

Samarth Kanal

He was annoyed to be on hard tyres at the end of the race, and he pulled off an incredible save at the last corner. 

But you could see the red mist descend as he was cheekily brushed aside by Leclerc on the start/finish straight with his podium slipping away.

The anger boiled over after Russell batted Verstappen's front tyre and sent him into the run-off area.

These are racing incidents; the following behaviour was inexcusable.

It's surprising that he was able to still take the final point at the expense of Liam Lawson, given how aggressive and unnecessary that Russell move was.

This is the side of Verstappen that makes him a brilliant and unrelenting winner, but it's the side that makes him so often hard to defend.

I do wonder if he'll vehemently deflect questions in his post-race sessions - as people this stubborn often do - or accept he was to blame.

Verstappen raced like he had nothing to lose. But he did

Val Khorounzhiy

Throughout Red Bull's early-2025 ebbs and flows, Verstappen has spoken of his season as being a race-by-race, 'get what I can when I can' affair largely independent on the points table - with his implication being that McLaren has too much of a buffer for him to sustain a challenge over 24 races.

He acted in that same mould today, which is not to excuse it or justify it. Maybe he would've had a better chance of fighting off Leclerc and Russell - if probably not the McLarens - on that restart if he'd kept his set of used softs, although he'd pushed on it quite a bit early in that previous stint, and in any case not nearly-putting-it-into-the-pitwall would've helped.

But Red Bull had to salvage a bad situation after that safety car, and the hard tyre should've at least been enough for 10 points. There was no reason not to get 10 points. There was no reason for Verstappen to hurt the team like this.

The way the race was shaking out, Red Bull was going to owe him an apology come chequered flag. Now, it's Verstappen who has some apologising to do.