Max Verstappen has acknowledged that the collision with George Russell in the Spanish Grand Prix “was not correct” and “should not have happened”.
The four-time world champion was penalized with 10 seconds for causing the incident, after apparently yielding to Russell at the entrance to Turn 5, only to accelerate and hit the Mercedes sideways.Verstappen, through his social media, admitted his mistake, explaining that frustration was a key factor in the incident.
The Red Bull driver was in third position when a safety car came out onto the track to remove Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes from the gravel at Turn 10.
Because Verstappen had already used his soft and medium tires, he only had one set of hard tires left to mount when entering the pits under the safety car.
The two cars behind him, Charles Leclerc and Russell, fitted soft tires under the safety car, giving them a performance advantage when the race resumed.
Leclerc overtook Verstappen shortly after crossing the finish line, while Russell attempted a maneuver at Turn 1 which resulted in the Mercedes driver sliding into Verstappen, forcing the Red Bull driver off the track. The stewards investigated the incident, which raised concerns at Red Bull about a possible penalty for Verstappen. Verstappen’s engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, instructed him by radio to yield the position to Russell to avoid a possible penalty, which generated frustration in Verstappen.On the next lap, approaching turn 5, Verstappen seemed to concede the position to Russell, only to accelerate again before the apex and collide with the Mercedes.
The stewards deemed Verstappen fully to blame for the collision and imposed a 10-second penalty and three penalty points on his super license.
These additional penalty points leave Verstappen one point away from a race ban for the next two races.
Meanwhile, tenth place has reduced Verstappen’s gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri to 49 points in the drivers’ standings.
