After his collision with George Russell in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix Max Verstappen enters the Canadian Grand Prix weekend just one penalty point away from securing a race ban.

And F1 pundit Martin Brundle says his rivals should goad him into scoring it.

Max Verstappen rivals should be ‘goading’ him into penalty points

At the Spanish Grand Prix, a safety car in the closing stages of the race left the Red Bull Racing team scrambling strategy-wise. The driver’s audacious three-stop strategy was scuppered by that safety car period, during which time Max Verstappen pitted for a pair of hard tyres.

The reigning champion was annoyed at being placed on an unfavorable tyre, and when the race restarted, he slewed sideways and was passed first by Charles Leclerc, then by George Russell.

Both drivers made contact with Verstappen, but the Russell contact likely further frustrated the Red Bull driver. He ran wide, then rejoined the track ahead of Russell — then was instructed to give the position back.

Verstappen appeared to do so, only to drive directly into Russell. It was a move that netted him a 10-second time penalty right out of the gate, followed by three penalty points added to his license.

That brings Verstappen’s penalty point total to 11. At 12, he’ll be handed a one-race ban — and he’ll have to be on his best behavior at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

More from the Canadian Grand Prix:

👉 Hamilton podium? Verstappen gets banned? Bold predictions for Canadian GP

👉 Eight iconic F1 moments from the Canadian Grand Prix

Ahead of Free Practice 1 at the Canadian Grand Prix, the folks at Sky Sports again reviewed the footage of the contact between Russell and Verstappen, with Martin Brundle concluding, “That was completely blatant from Max. He’s admitted so.

“I’m pretty sure that he decided to go and give George’s front axle a shove like he received down in Turn 1 a few laps earlier, just to show him.

“And Max, by now, is angry. He’s driving with a red mist.”

“He’s making irrational decisions,” Karun Chandhok added.

“And George will have been told, Max has been told to give the position back, and it looks like he was doing that to all intents and purposes,” Brundle continued. “And that gave him three penalty points and a 10 second penalty.

“I would have given him the full four that the stewards can do in the guidelines, and the equivalent of a drive through: a 30-second penalty.

“I wouldn’t have black flagged him, because you don’t know all the facts — Did he have a steering issue? Did he have a throttle issue? You know, that’s a big decision. That’s a one way street to black flag a driver. The toothpaste is out of the tube.

“But I think they were actually quite lenient on him at the end of the race.”

Later in the conversation, Brundle observed of Verstappen, “He’s an aggressive driver.

“He was from the get go in Formula 1, and that’s how he rock and rolls. You can’t cherry pick the bits you like about a sports person; that’s how Max goes racing, and he’s won the last four World Championships.

“And he would say, tell me exactly which bit of that is completely wrong. That’s how he is.

“He’s got such amazing car control that he can place his car — he knows the rules. He chances his luck, and more and more, he’s starting to lose out on that.

“But if I was a Mercedes, Ferrari, particularly a McLaren driver, I’d be goading him to get those extra [penalty] points. Because I think subconsciously, he knows he’s got to be a touch more careful.”

Whether or not Verstappen intends to be careful, though, is another story. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a narrow, twisting track that will keep everyone on their toes, and anything can happen. In fact, that was clear even in FP1 as drivers worked hard to master their twitchy racing machine.

Read next: Beer wars brew chaos: How Labatt vs Molson cancelled the 1987 Canadian Grand Prix