Wolff slams Verstappen's “angry taxi driver manoeuvre” in final stage of Spanish GP

19:10, 01 Jun

byTobia Elia

Toto Wolff commented on the dramatic incident between Max Verstappen and George Russell in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix.

While the first two-thirds of the Spanish Grand Prix — which may have taken place for the final time at the historic Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya — didn’t deliver much excitement, the restart following the Safety Car, triggered by Kimi Antonelli’s retirement on lap 55, certainly provided plenty of drama.

The man behind the show, once again, was none other than Max Verstappen, who found himself at the center of two controversial moments — first with Charles Leclerc at Turn 1, and then shortly after with George Russell at Turn 5.

The four-time world champion, clearly irritated by having to give the position back to his British colleague, is believed to have deliberately (though not yet confirmed by telemetry or the driver himself) collided with car number 63, resulting in a heavy impact.

The Dutchman also appeared visibly annoyed during the interviews, choosing not to go into detail about the incident and leaving room for doubt regarding the intentionality of the move. George Russell, on the other hand, was far more direct, expressing no hesitation in calling the Red Bull driver's maneuver deliberate.

"It felt very deliberate, to be honest'', the briton said after the race. ''It's something that I've seen numerous times in sim racing and on iRacing''.

''Never have I seen it in a Formula 1 race, so that was something new. It's a bit of a shame because Max's clearly one of the best drivers in the world, but manoeuvres like that are just totally unnecessary and sort of let him down."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,"

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff also weighed in on the matter, speaking to Sky Sport Italy without mincing words when describing the Dutchman's behavior: "We have to check the telemetry. If he did it because he was moved by anger, it's not good. It looked like an angry taxi driver manoeuvre."