Marko criticises Verstappen's 'unnecessary' Incident with Russell in Barcelona

The 82-year-old Austrian initially kept his distance and attempted to interpret the incident between the two drivers that caused a chaotic ending to the ninth Grand Prix of the season.

However, just a few days after the Grand Prix, surprisingly critical views on the Dutchman were expressed, with the collision giving Verstappen a ten-second time penalty to stop him from P5 to P10, heavily denting his championship hopes.

According to Marko, the whole situation began at the race restart after a late safety car, with Verstappen on the hard tyres.

On the restart, coming out of the last corner, the Red Bull driver slid, allowing Charles Leclerc to easily get by down the straight. However, they also briefly touched down at the start-finish. "He took a considerable hit," Marko started by saying on Germany's ServusTV Sport und Talk.

As a result, Verstappen was full of frustration when he approached turn 1, which is where the clash with Russell started: "Russell braked too late and slid into him. Max had to swerve. Max knows the regulations in detail, and according to the regulations, you don't have to give back the position in such a situation," the advisor analyses.

When race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase suggested letting Russell pass, Verstappen exploded, to the surprise of everyone, especially Marko.

"The telemetry clearly showed that Max was lifting off the gas. We all thought he was letting him through. And suddenly, he accelerated again! I don't know if it was a mistake in judgment or what was going through his mind. And then, of course, all hell broke loose," the 82-year-old explained, also calling the action 'unnecessary'.

Ultimately, Verstappen was given a ten-second time penalty and three penalty points on his license, sitting on 11 points and one away from a race ban.

As a result, the Dutchman has two races in Canada and Austria until some of his points reach their 12-month limit and are dropped from his tally.

Marko finds the punishment in Barcelona justified, but he is clear that a ban for the 27-year-old is out of the question

"But that's not going to happen. Max is a hard racer in duels, we know that. But he also knows his limits," concluded Marko.