Max Verstappen issued a blunt condemnation of his fellow driver George Russell stating he had “lost all respect” for him after the pair were involved in an incident during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. Verstappen considered that Russell had tried to “screw me over” with the stewards and the pair exchanged words about it before the race at the Lusail circuit on Sunday.
Verstappen won the race in Qatar but afterwards his anger with Russell was direct. After qualifying Verstappen had been penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly and impeding Russell. Both drivers had been summoned to the stewards to give their sides of the incident and Russell’s behaviour had left Verstappen incensed.
“I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I’ve raced and I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard. For me, I lost all respect,” he said.
He was even more dismissive in an interview with Dutch TV. “He always does it very nicely here in front of the camera, but then when you’re inside with him in person, it’s just a different person,” he said. “I can’t stand that and it’s actually better for him to fuck off. I don’t want to get involved in this.”
Verstappen was adjudged to have been at fault and given a one-place grid penalty removing him from pole and promoting Russell and the world champion also went to take aim at the stewards.
“I couldn’t believe that I got it. But in a way I was also not surprised any more in the world that I live in,” he said. He insisted he was not trying to impede Russell as neither driver was on a hot lap but felt he was ignored.
“I didn’t want to screw anyone over to prepare their lap and by doing that, being nice, basically you get a penalty. That’s what I tried to explain as well but I just felt like I was talking to a brick wall.”
Verstappen’s Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, confirmed that his driver had felt motivated by the incident and that he had made his feelings clear to Russell on the drivers’ parade pre‑race. “I think there was a little bit of a moment between the two of them on the trailer as they go around the circuit, that Max felt things just went a bit too far yesterday,” he said.
