Max Verstappen under threat of F1 race ban after crashing into George Russell

Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen is under threat of a race ban after a fired-up crash with Mercedes rival George Russell late in the Spanish Grand Prix.

While Australia’s Oscar Piastri stormed to his fifth victory of the season in a one-two with McLaren teammate Lando Norris, Verstappen’s podium push came to an end after a safety car restart.

Verstappen, who made four stops in total and ended up on the slower hard tyres against rivals on softs, collided with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and twice with Russell.

After the initial first-corner clash with Russell, who had wobbled on throttle and run Verstappen wide, he was urged by his team to give a position back but refused.

When it appeared Verstappen had slowed to let the Briton through, he instead put the foot back down and bumped tyres.

Verstappen was hit with a 10-second time penalty for the collision that was immediately considered well under par, with F1 champion Nico Rosberg declaring it was a deliberate hit and should have resulted in a disqualification.

“We don’t need to (see it again). That was horrible,” Rosberg said in commentary.

“That is seriously bad. He just rams him, full-on. You need to black flag that, there’s no other way.

“You slow down to ram into another driver? That’s pretty bad.”

Verstappen, who was demoted to 10th as a result, is now just one penalty point away from a race ban but the threat begins to clear, assuming he does not pick up more, when two old points expire at the end of the month.

Making matters worse for Verstappen, stewards later confirmed there was no need for him to give a position back to Russell — meaning the incident could have been avoided.

The 27-year-old was irate, clearly frustrated with both Russell and his team, and refused to explain himself after the race.

Asked if the move on Russell was intentional, he replied: “Does it matter?”

“I prefer to speak about the race than just one single moment,” Verstappen said.

Russell still finished fourth and noted Verstappen had only hurt himself and Red Bull in the championship races.

“It’s something that I’ve seen numerous times in sim racing, and iRacing, and never have I seen it in a Formula One race,” Russell said.

“So that was something new.

“It’s a bit of a shame because Max is clearly one of the best drivers in the world, but maouevres like that are just totally unnecessary and sort of let him down, and it’s a shame for all the sort of young kids looking up aspiring to be Formula One drivers.

“So I don’t know what he was thinking. In the end, I’m not going to lose sleep over it, because I ultimately benefitted from those antics.”

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg also benefitted, jumping to a fifth-place finish aided by a move on Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Norris smartly declined to discuss a Verstappen incident that had nothing to do with him after his high-profile run-ins with his old friend over the past 18 months.

The Briton had joked the Verstappen-Russell collision was a “Mario Kart move” after witnessing the replays in the cool-down room.

But asked in the post-race press conference, he cheekily deferred to Piastri.

“Oscar told me he has some interesting opinions on it,” Norris said.

“So I’m going to pass straight over to him.”

Piastri laughed: “Teammates with you is so fun.”

The Aussie said he was not aware of the full context and felt “it looked a bit strange”.

“It was not exactly a small touch ... but it obviously didn’t look great,” Piastri said.

Norris joked “that’s not what he (Piastri) said earlier” before also saying it’s not a discussion for him to join.