Damon Hill had little sympathy for Max Verstappen after he was clattered by George Russell in the Azerbaijan Sprint.
Sergio Perez won the short-form race after getting the better of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc. But the main flashpoint of the session was the battle for third place, with Russell getting a better launch off the line than Verstappen.
Their first lap battle took place over several corners, with the Mercedes racer making contact with Verstappen's sidepod before eventually getting ahead. The Dutchman eventually got back ahead to finish third, but he was still furious about it.
Verstappen had already vented about it over the radio, but that was clearly not enough for him to calm down. After getting out of his car. He waited for Russell in parc ferme so he could confront him in person, calling the Brit a "d***head" in front of the TV cameras.
Analysing the incident on Sky Sports, both Naomi Schiff and Damon Hill agreed with Russell's assertion that he was well within his rights to make the aggressive move. "It's difficult and you've got to see it from both sides, but as I said before and as George said, Max has more to lose in that situation," said Schiff.
"He's on the outside and he's closer to the wall. For him, having come into this weekend and saying he doesn't like the Sprint format and it's not worth the risk... so why take the risk? Back out of it, let George go. You know you're going to get past him anyway once the DRS is open, so why take the risk there?"
1996 world champion Hill concurred, adding: "I can see that Max had the line, was slightly ahead and was thinking to himself, 'I'm not going to yield but I'm going to try to stay out of George's way'. But George definitely couldn't turn the car hard enough.
"But it's racing. If he wanted to stay out of trouble, he should have got pole position. That's the best way to stay out of trouble. It's the default mindset of someone like Max, that they're always right.
"It was the same with Michael [Schumacher] and Ayrton Senna – basically, they have to be the guys who don't make mistakes, other people makes mistakes. I don't think George will feel bad about it at all. He absolutely went for it and, as Max's engineer said, they've got nothing to lose. So he should have taken that into account."
