Max Verstappen flatly denied threatening to crash into George Russell deliberately, but Nico Rosberg is not so convinced.

Looking to back up his scepticism, 2016 World Champion Rosberg revisited the scene of Canada 2018, when Verstappen had warned the assembled media that he “might headbutt someone” if he was asked any more questions about a spell of on-track errors at that time.

Nico Rosberg: Max Verstappen thinks he is ‘a little bit above the law’

A now infamous stewards’ room encounter occurred between Russell and Verstappen after their Qatar qualifying incident, which saw Verstappen stripped of pole with a one-place penalty for being judged to have been driving too slowly and impeding Russell, with Russell inheriting pole.

Tensions have spilled over into the Abu Dhabi season finale, where among an array of verbal jabs hurled between each camp, Russell claimed that Verstappen had threatened in that stewards’ room meeting to crash into him on purpose and “put me on my f**king head in the wall”.

Verstappen would later deny making that threat towards Russell.

“All that’s missing is that they get the fists out,” said Sky F1 pundit Rosberg as he reflected on the Russell v Verstappen feud.

“It’s very, very thrilling to watch, from the outside. From the inside, trust me, it’s horrible, because it’s just so consuming. The team gets involved. The team bosses start fighting, even Toto Wolff, Christian Horner got into a renewed fight around this. Your family gets involved, like everybody. So internally, it’s incredibly intense and stressful.

“I mean, you’ve got two sides there. You’ve got Max who’s like the street fighter, who thinks he’s the king now, a little bit above the law, like that angle. And you’ve got George, who, like the Dutch would say, he needs to go back in his pram and you need to give him the toys.

“So you’ve got both sides and it’s just great to watch it. Honestly, I think it’s about 50/50, probably.”

As fellow Sky F1 pundit Danica Patrick came in to explain that as drivers, even though you won’t forget such incidents, “you can have these conversations and you can become cordial”, Rosberg interrupted with: “But, Max said he’s going to put George’s head in a wall. I think there’s no more cordial stuff there.”

More on the Max Verstappen v George Russell feud

👉 Max Verstappen issues fresh update on Russell relationship after war of words

👉 Marko demands Russell ‘stick to the truth’ after Verstappen denies threat claim

Rosberg was at that point informed by Sky F1 presenter Simon Lazenby that Verstappen has denied saying this, though Rosberg is not so sure, as he made reference to that 2018 outburst from the Dutchman.

“Come on! We’re talking about Max Verstappen,” he replied, “who even said to all the journalists in the room in the press conference that if one more person mentions that, I’m going to headbutt you.”

Verstappen secured his fourth successive World Championship in F1 2024, which saw him match the achievement of Sebastian Vettel, who won four straight titles with Red Bull between 2010-13.

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