“Does that play a role?”
F1 world champion Verstappen threatens lock
02.06.2025 – 06:48 a.m.Reading time: 1 min.
The Grand Prix of Spain became a nightmare for Max Verstappen. Not only because he lost important World Cup points. But also because he damaged himself.
Max Verstappen is about to run shortly. After his ramming against George Russell at the Grand Prix of Spain, the Red Bull Pilot not only collected a ten-second time penalty, but also three penalty points-and now has eleven on its account. If another one is added within twelve months, it is automatically blocked for a race.
In the decisive scene of the final phase, Verstappen met the Mercedes of Russell with his Red Bull – an incident that was caught hard by the racing commissioners. The Dutch fell back to tenth place and lost important World Cup points. But the sporting consequences are taken into account in view of the possible lock.
Verstappen himself did not want to make a clear comment on his intention in the incident. “Does that play a role?” He replied to the corresponding question. Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko spoke of a “upset mood”, in which the frustration is also evident in the driving behavior of the current situation in the team.
The incident comes at a very unfavorable time: McLaren is already ahead in the design classification, and Oscar Piatri and Lando Norris also pull away in the driver’s World Cup. If Verstappen actually has to expose a race, Red Bull threatens the full loss of the connection.