Lammers on Verstappen and Russell: 'Masterclass on how to deal with each other'

A mistake by Max Verstappen and a defect to his RB18 led to a heated fight between the Red Bull Racing driver and George Russell during the Spanish Grand Prix. Former F1 driver Jan Lammers calls the fight a masterclass in how to deal with each other on the track.

After qualifying, Red Bull had rechecked and finally repaired the rear wing of Verstappen's car. On Sunday, it quickly became apparent that the DRS was again not working optimally. The problems seemed to be with the activation of the opening rear wing. Verstappen lacked the speed on the straight to make attacks due to the defect in his RB18. After his mistake in Turn 4, he lost second place and got stuck behind Russell. And without DRS, he was actually "stuck" there.

First F1 fight Verstappen and Russell

It resulted in the first fight we have seen between the two drivers in Formula 1. Lammers feasted on it. At the Formula 1 podcast from the NPO he said: "Fortunately it gave nice fights with Russell, because we haven't seen them before. They did ten years ago on the kart track. It was wonderful to see and I really thought it was a masterclass of how to deal with each other and how to let each other live."

Red Bull chiefs Christian Horner and Helmut Marko think the DRS malfunction may be related to the RB18's weight-loss program. Too drastic steps may have been taken in developing lighter parts for the RB18, which means that these parts are now not resilient enough. Reportedly, there were many cracks and holes in the wing already after qualifying.