Max Verstappen has acknowledged his mistake in the incident with George Russell during the Spanish Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver, after the controversial crash, admitted that the collision “was not good” and “should not have happened”.
Verstappen, who received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision, explained that the accumulated frustration during the race influenced his action.
The incident occurred when Verstappen, apparently, let Russell overtake him at the entrance to Turn 5, but then accelerated and collided with the side of the Mercedes.
In a social media post, the world champion admitted his mistake, mentioning that the tire strategy and some maneuvers after the restart of the race following the safety car, fueled his frustration.
Max Verstappen was penalized with ten seconds for his crash with George Russell.
The race in Barcelona took an unexpected turn with the safety car deployment, due to Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes going off track.
Verstappen, who had already used his soft and medium tires, only had one set of hard tires available. Charles Leclerc and Russell, who were behind, took the opportunity to fit soft tires, which gave them an advantage.
Leclerc overtook Verstappen, and Russell attempted a maneuver that resulted in a collision.The stewards determined that Verstappen was solely to blame and imposed a 10-second penalty and three points on his superlicense.
This penalty leaves Verstappen one point away from a possible suspension for the next races.
Furthermore, tenth place in the race has put Verstappen 49 points behind the championship leader, Oscar Piastri.
