For the vast majority of the grid, Saturday afternoon’s sprint race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was fairly uneventful, with the exception being reigning World Champion Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell.
Verstappen saw his championship lead reduced by two points Saturday afternoon, after finishing third in the sprint, whilst Sergio Perez claimed victory.
The Dutchman ultimately couldn’t have finished any higher than third after his car was significantly damaged on the opening lap of the sprint, following contact with Russell.
Starting third and fourth, Russell made a much better start than the Dutchman, resulting in them being side by side through the opening two corners.
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It was at Turn 2 where the collision occurred, with Russell having locked-up on the inside of Verstappen, sending him into the side of the Red Bull driver.
The impact ripped a hole in Verstappen’s left sidepod, massively impacting the performance of his RB19.
Verstappen actually lost the place to Russell following the collision but did reclaim third a few laps later; however, this didn’t settle his anger.
The two-time World Champion was absolutely livid with Russell, whom he even waited for in parc ferme after the sprint in order to vent his anger.
Russell did try to explain himself to Verstappen but to no avail, with the Briton having been called a “di*khead” by the Dutchman on live TV.
“Yeah, well what do you want me to do?” asked Russell, to which Verstappen shouted: “Then expect next time the same, d**khead!”
Russell defended his overtake on Verstappen after the sprint and admitted that he’s not simply going to “hold back”, with the Mercedes driver having actually been surprised to see his fellow 25-year-old defend for so long on the outside.
“I’m here to fight, I’m here to win and I’m not going to hold back just because he’s leading the Championship. I was quite surprised he was still trying to hold it around the outside,” Russell told Sky Sports F1 after the sprint race.
“It’s on a street circuit, he’s got a lot more to lose than I have.
“He’s got enough experience to know that if you’re trying to overtake a guy on the outside, there’s a risk that the guy on the inside is going to run wide into you and I don’t think anything would have been any different had the positions been reversed. None of the contact was intentional.”
Following on from that, Verstappen questioned why he shouldn’t defend as hard as he did, with the championship leader asking if it’s because “Princess George is there”.
“It’s not allowed because Princess George is there? That’s ultimately his problem!,” Verstappen told Dutch media.
Verstappen went on to explain how Russell overtaking him “doesn’t make much sense” due to Red Bull’s superiority, giving the impression that slower drivers shouldn’t attempt to get past him.
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“It can go wrong very quickly,” Verstappen said.
“There’s no chance, I will overtake him again within three laps, so yeah, it doesn’t make much sense. Everyone has their own opinion and vision in the story, but I think I just gave him space, and then he just has to take that corner normally.
“If you sometimes make contact with the wheels, that can happen. It’s not ideal, but if you drive into someone else’s gap, then it is a bit more than just with the wheels together.”