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Motorsport

Ed Hardy

Max Verstappen on George Russell's Austrian GP pole: 'I would have done the same'

George Russell Max Verstappen Carlos Sainz Andrea Kimi Antonelli Kimi Antonelli LAT Images Mercedes Silverstone Williams Racing

Max Verstappen defended George Russell for the way in which he clinched pole position at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix - but added he shouldn’t have been allowed to complete the lap.

The four-time world champion suffered a heavy crash at the penultimate corner of the Red Bull Ring in Q3 last Saturday, prompting yellow flag conditions in a messy end to qualifying.

That’s because there was confusion over whether it was a single-waved or double-waved yellow, which brings a key difference between being allowed to improve upon a lap time or not.

Considering it was only single-waved, stewards were satisfied by how much Russell, who was just behind Verstappen, lifted off in the final sector to still grab pole and then the race win.

That’s opposed to his team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who was on provisional pole but then aborted his final lap thinking it was double-waved, causing him to qualify fourth behind both Ferraris as well.

So Russell’s pole was certainly controversial, and the debate has continued into this weekend’s British Grand Prix over whether it should have been a double-waved yellow, or even a red flag.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes (Photo by: Michael Potts / LAT Images via Getty Images)

“It's a topic that we have been talking about for a long time,” said Verstappen at Silverstone. “In other series, I think when you create a double yellow or a red, you lose your lap for example.

“So yeah, it's things to look at for sure, but that still doesn't solve what actually happened. Besides that, people are still of course completing a lap or obviously backing out of it.

“Now you can read the rules really well and you complete your lap and you're allowed to keep it. But I think, first of all, it should not have been a single yellow. That is at least double yellow or a red.

“That the driver then of course optimises around it, I think that's fair play. I probably would have tried to do the same - that's just how it goes. But it should not even be allowed or impossible to finish your lap like that. I think that's for me the main concern in all of it.”

The incident also led to Williams driver Carlos Sainz raising an interesting proposition that any driver who causes a red flag in qualifying should be penalised, whether it was intentional or not.

“The way George handled it I think was perfect for what the rulebook allows you to do and he deserved that pole position because he played the rules to perfection,” said Sainz. “But it should never have been allowed to finish that lap or to close a lap in that kind of dangerous situation.

Carlos Sainz, Williams (Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images)

“You could say, well, if Max had been on pole in the first run and then he produced that crash, and then there’s red flag and no one improves their lap, it would be unfair for George, Kimi and everyone – because the guy on pole is not letting us improve the lap time.

“Like typically in Monaco – and I could have done last year in Baku when I was on [provisional] pole and I was the first car out of the pits, and I said ‘if I crash now I'm on pole’. We all have these thoughts and we all know how the rulebook works.

“And for that I think that anyone who generates a yellow flag or a red flag in qualifying should be three places with drop. So at least you get penalised and you get disincentivised to get a flag.”

There are, of course, numerous incidents in which this has happened, particularly in Monaco, like Michael Schumacher at Rascasse in 2006 or Nico Rosberg heading into the Mirabeau escape road in 2014.

Sainz’s comment was then put to Verstappen, who responded: “I think when someone does it deliberately, it should even be a bigger penalty than that. But from my side of course, it was out of my control what happened there.”