Horner and Wolff share their views on controversial Verstappen/Russell clash at end of Spanish GP

Red Bull and Mercedes team bosses Christian Horner and Toto Wolff have given their opinions on the dramatic clash between Max Verstappen and George Russell in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix.

After a Safety Car triggered by Kimi Antonelli’s stoppage, Verstappen found himself under attack from a host of soft-tyre runners, having only been able to take on hard rubber when he came into the pits.

Verstappen slid his way out of the final corner at the restart and was overtaken by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc via some wheel-banging on the start/finish straight, before Russell saw an opportunity and attempted an overtake of his own.

Taking to the Turn 1 escape road saw the Dutchman initially hold the position, only for his race engineer to instruct him to let the Mercedes man past, which he later appeared to do – despite some radio frustrations – at Turn 5.

‘I don’t need to say anything about it’ – Verstappen refuses to comment on clash with Russell

However, Verstappen quickly returned to his usual speed and collided with Russell on the penultimate lap of the race – prompting the latter to declare during his media pen interviews that he “got crashed into”.

“Max had a snap at the restart,” said Horner, as he offered his take on the chain of events. “Charles got alongside him [and] it looked like he pulled left on him.

“Then George obviously tried to capitalise on that into Turn 1 and it was very, very marginal. On recent experience and looking at recent incidents, obviously it’s subjective.

“You’ve asked for guidance from the FIA, from the referee. Essentially, there’s nothing come back. You can see that it’s been reported, it’s going to the stewards.

“It looked for all intents and purposes that it was going to be a penalty. So, therefore, the instruction was given to Max to give that place back, which he was obviously upset about and annoyed about, because he felt that, one, he’d been left no space and, two, that George hadn’t been fully in control.

Russell on Verstappen clash: ‘Not sure what he was thinking because he cost himself and his team a lot of points’

“So, after a conversation with his engineer, he elected to give the place back at Turn 5, [and] there was contact between the two cars.”

Horner added: “I haven’t had a chance to speak to Max from his side, but obviously the stewards deemed that he caused a collision and got 10 seconds and some penalty points, unfortunately.

“It obviously was very frustrating, because it leaves us with one point [10th place] out of the afternoon, what should have been an easy podium.”

Speaking in his post-race media session, with Russell winding up in fourth position, Wolff commented: “I just heard, actually, that Max had the call to let him pass, right? I didn’t know. We were under the impression in the race that he had a problem with the car, and that’s why he was so slow getting out of [Turn 4].

“I mean, if it was road rage, which I can’t imagine, because it was too obvious, then it’s not good. But the thing is, I don’t know what he aimed for. Did he want to let George pass and immediately repass, put George the car ahead? Then, like the old DRS games, letting him pass the right way?

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“Or… for me, it’s just incomprehensible. But again, I don’t know exactly what the motivations were, and I don’t want to jump on it and saying, you know, this was road rage, et cetera. Let’s see what his arguments are. It wasn’t nice.”

Pushed more on Verstappen’s racecraft and approach, Wolff said: “You know, there’s a pattern that I’ve read, the great ones, whether it’s in motor racing or in other sports, you just need to have the world against you and perform at the highest possible level.

“That’s why sometimes these greats don’t recognise that actually the world is not against you, it’s just you who has… you have made a mistake or you’ve screwed up, et cetera, et cetera.

“So, we haven’t seen any of these moments with Max for many years now. Obviously, I know the year 2021 that happened, and I don’t know where it comes from.”