Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has admitted fault for his incident with Mercedes’ George Russell at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen had spent much of the race in third position until a late safety car saw him switch to the hard tyre whilst everyone else around him opted for the faster soft tyres.
That move led Verstappen to suffer a snap on the rear of his Red Bull out of the final corner on lap 60 as racing resumed, which allowed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pass him at the start of lap 61, before he got nudged wide by Russell through Turn 1.
Red Bull three laps later instructed Verstappen to hand fourth to Russell, which he opted to obey at Turn 5 by moving to the inside line, which left Russell free to sweep around the outside until Verstappen slid across and banged into him.
Russell eventually cleared the reigning four-time champion for fourth but Verstappen’s actions saw him pick up three penalty points – which put him one point from a race ban, whilst a ten-second time penalty saw him classified tenth at the checkered flag.
Post-race, Verstappen in an interview with Red Bull refused to get drawn on the matter as he explained: “When we went into the restart, we got into a tricky situation and gave the place back. What happened there happened and we got a ten second penalty.”
He also snapped at Sky Sports’ Rachel Brookes in the post-race interview pen as he stated his desire to discuss the race rather than his incident with Russell.
“Does it matter? I prefer to speak about the race than just one single moment.”
The 27-year-old however changed his tune less than 24 hours later as he took to Instagram to admit that his clash with Russell “was not right”, as he instead pointed the blame towards his own team for their hard tyre choice but vowed that he gives everything on track for Red Bull.
“We had an exciting strategy and good race in Barcelona, till the safety car came out. Our tyre choice to the end and some moves after the safety car restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn’t have happened.
“I always give everything out there for the team and emotions can run high. You win some together, you lose some together. See you in Montreal.”