Former FIA steward and Sky F1 pundit Johnny Herbert believes that Max Verstappen “deserved” to be disqualified for his move on Mercedes driver George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Herbert told RoobetAlternatives: “I totally agree with Nico Rosberg: Max Verstappen deserved a black flag and should have been disqualified.

“There’s a point where you have to be hard on the driver when there have been many of these types of incidents.

“Verstappen is the best driver on the track, with the best racecraft and judgement, but there is always a story with him.

“It’s usually some kind of racing incident we all end up talking about with Verstappen, unfortunately.

“It was clear as day that Verstappen’s move on George Russell was on purpose.

“He backed out at the right corner, where he could then attack and retake the place by driving into Russell.

“To me, that’s overstepping the mark.

“The move he made in Imola made me go ‘wow’, then the move he made in Spain takes away that ‘wow’.

“It totally disappears and it’s frustrating.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again until I’m blue in the face: Verstappen doesn’t need to make these moves.

“He has the skill to make clear overtakes and the wheel banging is probably to make a point because of what happened at Turn 1 on the restart with Russell.

“He felt aggrieved at having to give the place back.

“On this occasion, Verstappen did not gain as big as an advantage as he did in Saudi Arabia where he got penalised, but he got away with that one too when it was only a five-second penalty and should have been a standard 10-second penalty.

“A black flag is something that could have been thought of by the stewards and the race director, you have to stop this wheel-banging type of racing.

“Anyone can go and crash into another car, it’s totally wrong to purposely bang into a fellow driver.

“It’s happened historically, with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, with Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill, and with Jacques Villeneuve too.

“In the 1997 incident, Schumacher was banned for the season.

“For me, I’d like to think I was a hard and clean racer and Verstappen can be that too.

“That collision overstepped the mark. I don’t want to see it, nor do the drivers.

That type of racing should not happen. If it does happen, the penalty should be harsher to stamp it out.

“It can’t just be a 10-second penalty, otherwise you’re treating it like any other racing incident.”

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