George Russell says Max Verstappen threatened to crash him during last week’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen was unhappy with Russell after the qualifying session. Russell felt that Verstappen was preventing him from driving slowly after Verstappen had completed his qualifying lap and complained in a meeting with the stewards. Verstappen, who had qualified first ahead of Russell in second, received a one-place grid penalty and dropped to second behind Russell.
On Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Russell said Verstappen told him after the stewards’ meeting that “he was going to do everything he could on purpose to crash into me and ‘put my head against the wall.'” “
“Max has been harassing people for years and his driving skills cannot be questioned. But he cannot face adversity. Whenever something has gone against him (Jeddah ’21, Brazil ’21) he lashes out. This year in Budapest, in the first race the car was not dominant, it collided with Lewis (Hamilton), hitting his team…
“For me those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary. Because what happens on the track we fight hard, that’s part of racing. What happens in the hostess lounge you fight hard, but it is never personal. But now it has gone too far.”
Fully recounting the interaction between the two, Russell added: “(He told me) privately, directly from the stewards. He said, “I don’t know why you would want to fuck with me like that.” I’m so disappointed in you. I wasn’t even going to compete with you tomorrow, I was going to let you pass, but now, if necessary, I will do everything I can to put your head on the wall. ‘So I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that sense.’
Verstappen said in Qatar that Russell was a different person in personal conversations than in front of the cameras and that “I can’t stand that.” He also said he had “lost all respect” for Russell for advocating a penalty for Verstappen.
Verstappen won the race in Qatar after taking the lead on the first lap. Russell dropped to third on the first lap behind Verstappen and Lando Norris and finished fourth.
Verstappen captured his fourth consecutive world championship on November 24 in Las Vegas. That win came two races after Verstappen was penalized twice for the way he raced against Norris, his closest title rival, at the Mexico City Grand Prix.