Max Verstappen and his hate for Sprint has been going on forever. George Russell might just have given Max Verstappen another reason to criticize the new sprint format. After the 2x world champion’s absurd comments about George Russell and his driving, the Briton has now come back at Verstappen with a warning of his own suggesting that the championship leader should calm down. What did he say and exactly panned out?

George Russell pushed his elbows out on Lap 1 of the Azerbaijan sprint in an attempt to overtake Max Verstappen. The Briton successfully did so but at the cost of causing damage to the side of Max Verstappen’s RB19. The Dutchman was furious and went onto his radio complaining about Russell’s move suggesting he did not leave him space. Verstappen’s race was compromised because of the damage as he failed to overtake Charles Leclerc in the final laps finishing P3.

After the race, with the cars parked up and the drivers out, Max Verstappen questioned George Russell as he went on to apologize for the incident. However, the angry Dutchman asked Russell to expect the same and later called him a d*ckhead. George Russell is not one who holds back and went after Max Verstappen’s comments suggesting he will not back down from an overtaking opportunity just because Max is the Championship leader.

According to the Tweet posted by formularacers on Twitter, George Russell said, “I think as a driver, you know the risks when you’re on the outside here.” “I’m here to fight, I’m here to win.” “I’m not going to hold back just because he’s leading the Championship…” “None of the contact was intentional.”

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The Briton suggested that as a driver, Verstappen should’ve known about the risks of going on the outside. Russell is here to fight and win races and championships. The Mercedes driver further added that none of the contacts was intentional. Max Verstappen, however, had a different point of view.

Max Verstappen reacting to contact with George Russell on Lap 1 

Christian Horner revealed that Max Verstappen lost around 7-tenth of a second each lap as a result of the hole in the side of RB19 created by George Russell. After the race, when Russell explained to Max that he had no grip, the Dutchman countered by suggesting that none of the drivers had any grip. When Max Verstappen’s engineer came onto the radio to tell him about the damage, Max was shocked and asked how? The engineer sarcastically asked him what do you think? The Dutchman was shocked at how George kept his position and damaged his car.

According to a Tweet posted by Fastest Pitstop, when Max’s engineer told him about the damage and he replied with a sarcastic return, Max Verstappen said, “Did he really drive into the side? I don’t understand how he can keep the position and is damaging my car. It’s kinda ridiculous.” Even during the post-race interview when Verstappen was asked if everything was okay between him and Russell after the conversation, the Dutchman replied by saying “No.”

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What do you make of the incident? Was George Russell guilty of taking way too much risk?