© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
When asked if he deliberately crashed into George Russell, Max Verstappen asked, “Does it matter?”, and said he’ll “bring some tissues” for the Briton.
On lap 61 of the Spanish Grand Prix, after the race was restarted following a Safety Car period, George Russell attempted to overtake Max Verstappen, but the two drivers made contact.
Verstappen then cut across to the inner escape road and returned to the track ahead of Russell, which led to his engineer telling him to give the position back.
On lap 64, it appeared that Verstappen was letting George through, however as the Briton pulled alongside, Verstappen ran into the side of his car.
Ultimately Verstappen received a post-race ten-second penalty, and got demoted from P5 to P10.
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After the race, when asked by Sky Sports F1’s Rachel Brookes if the contact was intentional, Verstappen defiantly replied: “Does it matter?”
Brookes told him that the fans and pundits watching the race would probably think his intentions did matter, but he was undeterred.
“Yeah, OK, that’s great. I prefer to speak about the race rather than one single moment.”
When journalists asked the Dutch driver to respond to Russell’s criticism of his actions, he said: “Okay, well, next time I’ll bring some tissues.”
“He has his view, I have my view,” he continued.
“And, honestly, it is just better to focus on the race, which was quite okay until the safety car.”
Pushed for a view on the incident Verstappen said it was a “misjudgement”.
However, he doesn’t think it’s “necessarily” to speak with Russell, and he added that he has “nothing to say” and “in life, you shouldn’t regret too many things”.
“You only live once,” Verstappen concluded.
