Russell calls out 'unsportsmanlike' behaviour from Verstappen

In the early stages of the race, Norris and Verstappen met on track. Norris overtook the three-time World Champion, but that wasn't the end of it. Verstappen tried to get back and pushed Norris off the track later on the same lap. The stewards looked at both incidents and deemed Verstappen to be at fault twice. They handed out two ten-second penalties.

Russell shocked by Verstappen

Russell, who enjoyed a tussell with his teammate Lewis Hamilton, commented on the actions of Verstappen. First, he pointed out that the Mercedes drivers engaged in a fair fight.

"It was nice to have the battle. It's always good when you fight with Lewis because it's hard and fair, and at the moment we've seen a number of manoeuvres that are just getting beyond entertainment, or beyond sort of sportsmanship, almost unfair to a point now," Russell stated after the Grand Prix.

"You can argue the first one was, again, maybe 60-40. The last one, it was… I've not seen anything like that since, probably, Brazil," Russell referred to the duel between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021. Racing rules were discussed in the driver briefing, but Russell said there was one driver who did not want adjustments to the rules right away.

"I think the stewards are totally on board with what needs to change. Our view is, I think the biggest discussion is they wanted to wait until '25, so it's something consistent through this year. I would say 19 out of 20 drivers said, 'well, if it's incorrect, make the change today'. And I'm glad to see those incidents were punished and I suspect moving forward in Brazil what we saw today and what we saw last week you won't be able to get away with."

This article has been created in collaboration with Tim Kraaij