George Russell has fought back in a war of words with Max Verstappen – and explained how the Dutchman threatened to put “my f**king head in the wall” at the start of the Qatar GP.
Verstappen made the threat at the pair left the stewards’ room on the Saturday evening in Qatar, implying what would happen should he get a penalty.
He was duly given a one-place penalty that handed the pole to Russell.
Russell says he initially took the comments as “heat of the moment“, but a second interaction with Verstappen before the drivers’ parade made him think that the threat was serious.
The comments were informally reported to the stewards before the race – in effect as a form of insurance for Russell should anything actually happen.
In the end Verstappen made the better start and drove straight past, and there was no controversy.
However after the race Verstappen slammed Russell in the FIA press conference, indicating that he’d never seen a driver try so hard to get a penalty for a competitor.
In Abu Dhabi on Thursday Verstappen said he had no regrets about anything he’d said and went a step further by accusing Russell of lying. Russell chose to use his own media session to respond.
“It’s funny, because even before I said a word in the stewards, he was swearing at the stewards,” he said.
“He was so angry before I’d even spoken, and at the end of the day, there’s nothing to lie about. The facts were the facts. He was going too slow.
“He was on the racing line in the highest speed corner. I wasn’t trying to get him a penalty at all. When I was on track, I was in pole position at this time, I was just trying to prepare my lap.
“And as drivers, you fight hard on track, you fight hard in the stewards the same way as Max the very next day, asked his team to look at Lando’s penalty through the yellow flag. That’s not personal Max to Lando, that’s just racing, and I do not see why he felt the need for this personal attack. And I’m not going to take it.”
Russell repeated what Verstappen had said to him.
“I’ve known Max for a long time, and I know what he’s capable of. And he said to me he’s going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me, put my f***ing head in the wall.
“I knew that was a bit of a heat of the moment thing, but when I went to see him the next day at the driver’s parade, when Checo was there, when Carlos was there, and we were joking around a little bit, you know, I saw it in his eyes that he that he means it. And he’s a four time world champion.
“When I compare his actions to the ones of Lewis, Lewis is the sort of World Champion who I aspire to be like, the way he fought Max in ’21 it’s hard, very hard. It’s fair, but never beyond the line.
“And I think we’ve also got a duty as drivers. I’ve got an eight-year-old nephew who’s just started go-karting, who watches all of my races, watches Tiktok, watches YouTube, and for a World Champion to be coming out saying he out of his way to crash into someone and put them on their effing head, that is not the sort of role models we should be.”
Russell insisted that he wouldn’t have escalated the dispute had Verstappen not done so.
“We’re adults and we’re mature, and as I said, right now, it’s not even something I’m thinking about. I never have the intention, or had the intention of throwing Max under the bus like this, until he comes out and slams me so personally.
“But this is not like I’m angry with Max. This is me just setting the record straight. But I’m not going to stand here watching some guy slam me personally as he has done.”