Russell reveals cruel threat from Verstappen: “I’ll put your f… head against the wall”

The The sour relationship between Max Verstappen and George Russell continues after what happened at the last F1 Qatar GP. There, the Dutchman was penalized and lost his pole position because, according to Russell, he was distracted on the track, even though the Englishman was not on a fast lap and was accelerating in an incomprehensible way during his preparation lap.

Max Verstappen was sent loosely to Qatar with a massive ‘crack’ against Russell, after winning the race despite starting 2nd due to that penalty. And a week later, the Dutchman returned to battle on the same day george He claimed that the recently proclaimed four-time F1 world champion had threatened to cause an accident.

“I think it’s all quite ironic, considering that Saturday night he said he would do anything to crash me and, I said, ‘drive me into the wall first.’ “Questioning someone’s integrity as a person, while comments like that were said the other day, seems very ironic to me and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.”Russell shot back at Max, in response to the Dutchman’s words.

“Max has been bullied by people for years and you can’t question his ability to drive. But he can’t face adversity when someone goes against him. Jeddah 2021, Brazil 2021… he’s fighting. Budapest now year, in the first race that the car did not dominate, he crashed Lewis, he hit his team, as I said, to me, the comments on Saturday night and Sunday were completely disrespectful and unnecessary, because. “What happens on the track, we fight hard. It’s part of racing. What happened in the stewards’ room? It’s fight hard, but it’s never personal. But you know, he’s going too far.”

“I just don’t know why the other drivers, when they are in this fight against him, take it easy and let it go. Lewis Hamilton is a world champion that I want to emulate, and I think he is a role model for children to follow.” smaller ones must follow. And the way Lewis approached the championship fight was tough, aggressive, always respectful and never overstepping the line. You can go overboard and make a small error in judgment, but go out of your way and say that accidentally bumping into someone is overdoing it,” he said. Georgem assured him that he decided to speak up because Max was the first “disrespected” him in front of the media.

“I’ve known him for 12 years. We respect each other beforehand. We’ve never had any clashes… but we have a guy who is at the top of this sport and who feels above the law. I don’t right I think I admire his battles on the track and when he is tough and aggressive but what we saw at the end of the season in 2021, or what we saw in Mexico with Lando (Norris), was not tough and aggressive maneuvers, something like, ‘I’m so ready to take this guy.’

Verstappen responded strongly

At the FIA ​​press conference ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP, Max Verstappen was asked if he regretted his comments to George Russell. He responded emphatically.

“No, I have no regrets. Nothing has changed and knowing how the race ended I might have said more than I did.. I still can’t believe something like that could happen in a commissioners meeting. “This is unacceptable,” said Max.

“We are all drivers and we respect each other, even though we travel and play together and sometimes we get together and have accidents and you are not happy about it, but in my career I have never experienced what I experienced in stewards’ room in Qatar and for me is absolutely unacceptable,” said the current F1 champion.

“I just never thought I could put so much effort to get another driver penalized and lie to get it. The truth is that it is not good and surprising,” he added.

Verstappen detailed what happened on the track with his version

In addition, Max Verstappen gave his version of what happened on the track, detailing what he did to be sanctioned in Qatar without starting from pole.

“I’m going to go full throttle on my warm-up lap,” he noted in clear reference to the acceleration that Russell gave against Max. “It’s something I don’t understand. When I was in the meeting, I tried to explain the reasons. I think Lando passed me and his tires were colder because he had to drop his lap. He passed me, I went up, I didn’t want to be in the middle, and in Q3 you are always looking for the track position. Alonso came out with new tires and you have to push hard to get the temperature up and I saw how he was flying and I passed him. And then everyone in front slowed down because there were a few cars and I slowed down because I didn’t want to overtake and ruin their preparations, then I saw something flying in my rearview mirrors.acting like it was the most dangerous situation in the world or like it almost killed him. It’s unbelievable”Verstappen said.

“We were all on that slow lap, in preparation. When they called me to the marshals it was a surprise for me because I didn’t bother anyone. We all followed our lines in the warm-up and cool-down lap, but well… I don’t know how they got there. For me this is very disappointing‘, because trying to get away from problems you will find yourself in the middle of them and at this time of the year I don’t want to fight with anyone or for someone to come and say to me: why did you ruin my comeback or what are you doing?’. I don’t want to be in that position. But in doing so I ended up in that situation where I had to go to the commissioners. And as soon as I got in, I thought I was worthless, something different…” Verstappen concluded.