Verstappen resigned to McLaren's might? 'Never said nothing about a title fight'

Verstappen was en route to finish P3 in Spain, but a late Safety Car threw a spanner in the works. After being put on hard tyres due to the lack of better rubber in the Red Bull garage, the Dutchman as overtaken by Charles Leclerc at the restart and then was pushed wide by George Russell at the same corner.

In what is generally viewed as a deliberate crash, Verstappen, seemingly frustrated by the race's circumstance up to that point and Red Bull's decision to instruct him to give the position back to the British Mercedes driver, Verstappen appeared to give into his emotions and deliberately crash in Russell.

As a result he was handed a 10 second time penalty which demoted him to P10 and instead of accruing 15 points, his tally scaled back to 1.

Piastri's gap to Verstappen in the championship is now of 49 points after the first 9 rounds, which appears to healthily grow despite the Dutchman's performances. But, 'who said anything about a title fight?', is Verstappen's thought.

“Well, I never said that I was in a championship fight, first of all. I think every race so far, it's been tough. When they get their things right, they're unbeatable, and I think that's quite clear this season,” was Verstappen's conclusion to the media in Spain, including GPblog.

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