Horner criticises former F1 Driver for 'sensationalist' comments on Verstappen

Initially, Verstappen and Russell came into contact at turn 1. Later, another moment led to a penalty for Verstappen: contact with Russell that seemed intentional to some. After the race, Russell stated that Verstappen was doing himself a disservice. Horner, in a conversation with GPblog among others, did not want to respond directly to that remark. "I haven't had a chance to talk to Max yet, but it's something we'll discuss,” he said after the race.

At Sky Sports, Nico Rosberg described Verstappen's move as deserving of a black flag: he suggested that it seemed as if Verstappen deliberately steered into Russell. Horner sharply commented: "Nico is quite sensational in the way he comments on things.”

Yet, the Red Bull team boss admitted that Verstappen was very frustrated at the moment. "I haven't spoken to Max yet, but you could hear how frustrated he was. He felt that he was pushed out of the way at turn 1. So, there was a lot of frustration in him,” he explained.

The stewards ultimately imposed a ten-second time penalty and three penalty points on Verstappen. He is thus far the only driver in 2025 to receive so many penalty points for a single incident. Initially, the Dutchman did not want to apologize for the incident, but he eventually did so.