Russell and Verstappen cast new light on clash which triggered explosive row · RaceFans

Max Verstappen and George Russell traded verbal blows ahead of this weekend’s race over the incident which cost the Red Bull driver pole position for last weekend’s race.

The pair revealed details over how they presented their cases to the stewards which cast new light on the decision which left Verstappen incensed at his rival.

The incident was one of the first cases of a driver being penalised as a consequence of rules F1 brought in just over a year ago enforcing a maximum time between the Safety Car Line Two (at the pit lane exit) and Safety Car Line One (at the pit lane entrance). Many drivers have exceeded the time limit over the course of the year but until last weekend none had picked up a significant penalty.

Exceeding the maximum time does not automatically trigger a penalty because a driver might find themselves forced to impede a rival in order to stay within the time. So for all the drivers who do exceed the time, often dozens per weekend, the stewards check video, timing and other positioning data to make sure they didn’t hold up another car.

In most cases the stewards have then ruled: “The drivers took appropriate actions to not impede other drivers, and in all cases, they slowed down significantly to allow other drivers to pass while giving those drivers a clear track. The stewards therefore determine that all drivers concerned did not drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’, and that they were above the maximum time because they took appropriate steps.”

This was what the stewards decided for 38 out of 40 cases they looked at in the sprint race qualifying session on Friday. However two drivers were given reprimands – Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda.

In both cases the stewards noted they did not hold up any other drivers, but it showed how sensitive they were to drivers trying to exploit the compliance with the maximum delta time to cool their tyres more and gain an advantage. In Tsunoda’s case they pointed out he had an opportunity to comply with the time: “The driver could have closed the gap prior to reaching the last corner.”

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In Qatar the situation was more complicated than usual because teams were using a mixture of approaches to prepare their tyres. This was true of Verstappen, Russell and another driver who interacted with their cars at the crucial moment in Q3: Fernando Alonso.

Red Bull chose an unusual run plan for Verstappen in Q3: He did an out-lap, a flying lap, took a lap to prepare his tyres, then another – during which he picked up his penalty – then a final flying lap. Russell did an out-lap, a preparation lap and a flying lap. Alonso simply did an out-lap and a flying lap.

The time each driver crossed the second Safety Car line prior to their final flying laps was crucial. Verstappen got their first with two minutes, 34 seconds left in Q3. As the maximum time was set at 1’40 – 100 seconds – he risked being investigated if he did not reach the first Safety Car line before the countdown clock showed 54 seconds remaining.

As Russell headed towards the line he saw Alonso emerging from the pits. “Get to the Safety Car line before Russell,” Aston Martin race engineer Chris Cronin urged his driver. He made it with two minutes, 21 seconds left in the session – and Russell crossed the line a second behind him.

“These guys are going to be making a gap, won’t they?” Russell accurately observed. If he and Alonso both used as much of the 100 seconds they were permitted to spend between the two Safety Car lines, he risked ending up too close to the Aston Martin at the start of his flying lap and losing time in its turbulent air. He therefore needed to stay close enough to Alonso to judge whether he could afford to stay behind the Aston Martin or overtake it before they started their laps.

It was in this scenario that the two drivers started to catch Verstappen. He had already let Norris past and did the same when Alonso closed on him.

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“Out of turn 10, I saw him in the mirror, flying,” Verstappen explained. “I’m like: ‘Okay, I’ll let him by, whatever, and then I’ll just sort myself out’.”

Verstappen had already done the same for a Lando Norris few moments earlier. Having allowed two cars past he was now at risk of failing to adhere to the 100-second limit. But providing he didn’t get in anyone’s way, he could expect to avoid a penalty.

“You can let Fernando through,” Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase advised him, and the Red Bull made way at the exit of turn 10. He then began to tell him about Norris further ahead, and didn’t mention Russell, perhaps unaware that the Mercedes driver couldn’t afford to let Alonso get too far ahead.

While Verstappen was able to observe Alonso pushing hard in turn 10, he couldn’t see that Russell was keeping pace with the Aston Martin. Verstappen backed off to 93kph at that point on the track, Alonso rounded the corner at 138kph, Russell 133kph.

Verstappen was therefore surprised when Russell caught him in turn 11. “Everything slowed up in front, because there were quite a few cars,” he explained. Verstappen was close to Alonso at turn 11, while Norris had already exited turn 13. “I slowed down as well, because I don’t want to then speed up, [and] ruin their preparation as well.

“Then I see someone flying in my mirror, acting like the most dangerous situation just happened and he almost killed himself or something. It was unbelievable. And we were all on the slow lap. It’s not even like someone was on a fast lap.”

However Russell pointed out that although he was not on a flying lap, he was trying to abide by the maximum time between the Safety Car lines. “I was following my delta time,” he explained. “We all have this lap time we have to follow.

“They also say if you’re driving slow, you need to move off the line.” Russell encountered Verstappen at the exit of turn 11.

When they reached the first Safety Car lines to begin their final flying laps, only one of the trio was outside the 100-second limit. Alonso took 94 seconds, Russell pushed it almost to the limit, taking 98, and Verstappen took 118. That was what led the stewards to look into whether he had slowed “unnecessarily” during the lap, and found he had.

“I was just trying to prepare my lap,” Russell explained. “He was 20 seconds too slow on his lap. He was parked in the middle [of the racing line].”

Russell stressed that he had followed the letter of the law. “Max was very angry that I didn’t support him because he was expecting me to say ‘no problem, what Max did was okay’.

“It wasn’t ‘crazy dangerous’. Was the penalty harsh? Maybe it was a little bit harsh. But these are the rules, we all have the rules and we all have to follow it.

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“I would love to go 20 seconds slower on my preparation lap to get my tyres ready, but I didn’t.”

Both drivers were pushing the limits of what they could get away with the Q3: Russell by narrowly complying with the delta time, Verstappen with exceeding it while relying on the explanation that he was letting slower cars by. F1 drivers should be expected to do this in every situation and we’ve observed other intriguing tactics in qualifying this year.

It’s not hard to see why Verstappen feels hard done by with his penalty. But if he had kept his position in the queue and not exceeded the maximum time the situation never would have arisen. And his repeated claim that by letting other cars past he was “trying to be nice” is slightly disingenuous – there was a clear performance advantage to be found by driving more slowly than the maximum time permitted.

But this row has moved well beyond the question of whether either driver was at fault and become rooted in a mutual dislike which may increase the prospect of more on-track acrimony in the last qualifying session of the season.

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