George Russell and Max Verstappen collided twice in the latter stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, the second appearing to have been a potentially deliberate act from the Red Bull racer

Max Verstappen reacted to his clash with George Russell(Image: Sky Sports)

Max Verstappen refused to give straight answers to questions about his furious clash with George Russell at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix. The Dutchman appeared to deliberately ram into his Mercedes rival after losing his temper in the final stages of the Barcelona race.

He had become irate after a late safety car restart which ended his chances of fighting for the podium. He only had hard tyres left while everyone else around him were on the faster, softer rubber which meant he was a sitting duck in third place.

Charles Leclerc immediately passed him while Russell caused light contact between them when he tried to overtake. That had already angered Verstappen but he completely lost his temper when his Red Bull race engineer told him to give the position to Russell.

He ranted over the radio and eventually complied, but only after causing more contact with the Mercedes. He was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision which dropped him to 10th place, while the stewards are now investigating whether a harsher sanction should be given.

If they decide Verstappen deliberately crashed into his rival, then he may face an even stiffer punishment. Speaking on Sky Sports, co-commentator Nico Rosberg said he believed the Dutchman should have been disqualified.

Asked by Rachel Brookes on Sky if he had deliberately caused the collision, Verstappen simply replied: “Does it matter?” He then refused to answer any questions about the incident, adding: “I prefer to speak about the race than just one single moment.”

Brookes then tried to approach it in a different way, asking the Red Bull racer if he was worried that the points he lost because of his penalty would affect his title defence. In response, Verstappen made it clear he thinks it will be a tall order to stop one of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris denying him anyway.

He said: “We are way too slow anyway to fight for the title, that was clear again today. I enjoyed the three-stop and it was quite good, it was quite racy. We had quite a bit of degradation on the tyres, I think that was good.

“But unfortunately the safety car came out at the end and we ran out of tyres, and the hard tyre was clearly not the right tyre. I was really grip-limited on the hard.”

Piastri won the race, having started on pole with title rival Norris behind him in second place. Leclerc joined them on the podium while Russell finished fourth and five more drivers moved up a place as a result of Verstappen’s penalty, which ensured he left Barcelona having scored just one single point.