Russell comments on Verstappen's 'deliberate' crash: 'Let's himself down'

A late safety car was brought out due to Kimi Antonelli's retirement, meaning the whole grid was bunched up with under ten laps to go.

Verstappen was put onto hard tyres, while the rest of his rivals were on soft tyres, and a slide on the restart meant Chares Leclerc easily passed the Dutchman.

Then, going into turn 1, Russell looked for a move and ended up pushing Verstappen off the track, rejoining back ahead of the Brit.

Red Bull then told Verstappen to give the position back, and after letting Russell through, he then lunged forward and collided with the Mercedes driver, resulting in a ten-second time penalty for the Dutchman.

"I don't really know, to be honest. Probably as surprising for you guys as it was for me. I don't know what he was thinking, but in the end, I finished fourth, he finished 10th, so, a bit of an unnecessary manoeuvre," the Mercedes driver said to several media sources, including GPblog.

"It's a shame for all the sort of young kids looking up, aspiring to be Formula 1 drivers. So, as I said, I don't know what he was thinking in the end, I'm not going to lose sleep over it because I always benefited from those antics," continued the 27-year-old.

He was then asked whether the Dutchman should have been handed a disqualification as a result of the collision.

"Honestly, I need to look back on it. If it was truly deliberate, then absolutely, because you cannot deliberately crash into another driver," Russell explained.

"We're putting our lives on the line. We're fortunate the cars are as safe as they are these days, but we shouldn't take them for granted. As I said, it's down to the stewards to determine if it's deliberate or not.

"If they do think it's deliberate, then, you know, they need to have precedence. But as I said, I'm not too bothered about it because that's his problem, that's the stewards' problem," he concluded.