The Mercedes driver enjoyed the stronger launch in Saturday's sprint race to dive up the inside of fourth-starting Verstappen into Turn 1 in Baku and the duo continued to run side-by-side until the exit of the Turn 3 left-hander.
In their exchange, Russell and Verstappen bumped at the apex of Turn 2, with the impact tearing a gash in the left sidepod of the Red Bull before the Dutch driver then backed out to avoid the wall.
