Max Verstappen’s driving was the talking point yet again after the Spanish Grand Prix, after he collided with George Russell in the closing laps.
The Dutchman was battling over fourth position with Russell, after Red Bull put him on slower tyres following a late pit stop under the Safety Car.
After nearly spinning at the restart exiting the final corner, Verstappen was under pressure from several cars behind, with Russell eager to pass. As the Mercedes driver attempted a move on the inside of Turn 1, he briefly lost control at the apex, causing Verstappen to take to the escape road.
Fearing he would be given a penalty, Red Bull instructed Verstappen to give the position back. Flustered by the wrong tyre choice, he retaliated and would later collide with Russell at Turn 5.
The stewards gave him a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision, but there has been much speculation over whether the move was intentional. Discussing it on F1 TV’s YouTube, Jolyon Palmer points out a key piece of data that suggests it was and demands a more severe penalty.
Jolyon Palmer explains how Max Verstappen intentionally drove into George Russell
After receiving backlash from fans in the aftermath of the incident, Verstappen would later go on to issue an apology for the move on Russell in a post on his Instagram.
While Verstappen’s apology did not explicitly mention Russell, Palmer believes there is a key piece of data that proves he did it intentionally to the Mercedes driver.
“It pretty much shows Verstappen backing well off the throttle. He completely lifts off, but when he sees George coming around the outside, he gives it another stab of the throttle to try and prove his point and dive down the inside and initiate the contact,” said Palmer.
“In the steering trace, Verstappen is coming into the corner but he isn’t really turning in. Fundamentally, this looks like a driver frustrated, angry, red mist inside the cockpit.
“But you can never use your car as a weapon to hit other cars. This is not Mario Kart or Wacky Races. It’s kind of the worst thing you could do in an F1 car. Max hasn’t denied it afterwards, so there doesn’t seem like there is a defence.”
READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Max Verstappen close to F1 race ban after Russell incident
In the aftermath of the collision, the FIA stewards issued three penalty points for Verstappen on his FIA Super Licence.
This now takes his total points up to 11 in a 12-month period, which means he is now one point away from being given an automatic race ban.
| Grand Prix/Points | Reason |
| Austrian Grand Prix 2024 (two penalty points) | Causing a collision with Lando Norris |
| Mexico City Grand Prix 2024 (two penalty points) | Forcing Lando Norris off the track |
| Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint 2024 (one penalty point) | Speeding during a Virtual Safety Car |
| Qatar Grand Prix 2024 (one penalty point) | Driving unnecessarily slowly during qualifying |
| Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2024 (two penalty points) | Causing a collision with Oscar Piastri |
| Spanish Grand Prix 2025 (three penalty points) | Causing a collision with George Russell |
Points expire after 12 months and his next points do not expire until the end of June, which means he will need to avoid any incident in the next two events.
The last driver to fall foul of the Super Licence points rule was Kevin Magnussen, who received a one-race ban last year for multiple incidents on track.
