Toto Wolff says he cannot imagine Max Verstappen’s clash with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix was a moment of “road rage” as that would’ve been “too obvious”.

But if it was, that “is not good”.

Was it road rage or just an accident?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

There was late drama at the Spanish Grand Prix when Kimi Antonelli’s W16 suffered a power unit failure and the Italian’s race ended in the gravel, with the Safety Car period ending in a six-lap shoot-out for the final spot on the podium behind the McLaren team-mates.

Verstappen lined up third for the restart ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell, who both attacked the Red Bull driver for position.

Leclerc made it through before Russell also tried to pounce, but contact between the two saw Verstappen go off the track and rejoin ahead of the Mercedes driver.

He was told by Red Bull to give the position to Russell, which he looked to do at Turn 5, only to jink to the right and hit him.

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The stewards imposed a 10-second time penalty as they ruled that the ‘collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1’. They also gave Verstappen three penalty points, with the driver just one point away from a race ban.

Nico Rosberg felt it should’ve been a black flag as it was “very intentional retaliation”, while Russell said it felt “very deliberate” to him.

Wolff says he’s withholding judgement on that as it was too obvious to be road rage.

“I just heard actually that Max had the call to let him pass, right? I didn’t know. We were under the impression in the race that he had a problem with the car, and that’s why he was so slow getting out of Four,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“I mean, if it was road rage, which I can’t imagine because it was too obvious, that it’s not good.

“But the thing is, I don’t know what he aimed for. Did he want to let George pass and immediately re-pass? You know, put George the car ahead, and then, like the old DRS games, letting him pass right way? Or…

“For me, it’s just incomprehensible.

“But again, I don’t know exactly what the motivations were, and I don’t want to jump on it and saying, ‘you know, this was road rage or etc’. Let’s see what his arguments are.”

“It wasn’t nice,” he added.

Asked if he thought there should’ve been a ‘proper hearing’ given how the incident looked, Wolff replied: “I don’t know what happens actually now. An in-race penalty has been given, and that’s it. Case closed.

“I don’t know. Let’s see. Let’s see what happens. Again, I don’t want to jump conclusions here.”

Sunday’s incident has once again raised questions about Verstappen and his temperament.

Not for the first time he’s been accused of letting the red mist get to him with notable examples being Monza 2021 where he finished the Grand Prix with his Red Bull sitting on top of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and more recently in Mexico last year when he was hit with two penalties in the space of one lap as he raced Lando Norris.

Asked about Verstappen’s ‘brilliance’ versus his ‘moments’, Wolff puts it down to Verstappen having the mindset of one of the “greats”, and they often do not acknowledge their own flaws, instead blaming the rest of the world.

“There’s a pattern that I’ve recognised with the great ones,” he explained, “whether it’s in motor racing or in other sports, you just need to have the world against you, and then you perform at the highest possible levels.

“And that’s why sometimes these greats don’t recognise that actually the world is not against you, it’s just you who has made a mistake, or you’ve screwed up, etc, etc.

“So we haven’t seen any of these moments with Max for many years now. Obviously, I know in the year 2021, that happened, and I don’t know where it comes.”

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