Russell on Verstappen bust-up: ‘He’s a two-time champion, he let himself down’

The most dramatic on-track action of the weekend in Baku came in the opening lap of Saturday’s 17-lap sprint.

Russell and Verstappen battled for position through the opening sequence of corners, coming into contact with each other on two occasions.

The contact left Verstappen with damage meaning he was unable to overtake Charles Leclerc for second.

Verstappen expressed his frustration afterwards in parc ferme as he discussed the incident with the Mercedes driver, who still had his helmet on at the time.

The Dutchman didn’t appreciate Russell’s excuse of having cold tyres before calling him a ****head when the British driver walked away.

Reflecting on what happened on Saturday, Russell says it was “unnecessary”.

“I think he’s a two-time champion, leading the championship again at the moment, it doesn’t bother me, but he probably lets himself down a little bit with those sort of comments,” Russell said. 

“Max is a super good guy, great, great driver it’s just words like that are just a bit unnecessary.”

Russell admitted when reviewing the video footage he was “underwhelmed”, describing the battle as typical Lap 1 contact.

“To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed at how little everything was. I was expecting it to be a lot more," he added.

“Obviously, there was a bit of contact, as there often is up and down the grid on lap one. So I was expecting a bit more.”