Russell baffled at Verstappen: 'Don't understand the rationale'

During the final few laps of the Spanish Grand Prix, a late safety car meant that the Dutchman was on much slower hard tyres compared to the rest of the grid around him, putting him on the back foot.

Verstappen slid on the restart, allowing Charles Leclerc to easily pass before turn 1, while Russell also had a look up the inside, forcing the Red Bull driver off track and onto the escape road.

After rejoining the track ahead of Russell, Verstappen was then told to let the Brit back in front, which then led to the Dutchman swerving into the Mercedes driver, resulting in a ten-second time penalty.

Along with the ten-second time penalty that dropped Verstappen from P5 to P10, the Dutchman also received three penalty points on his license, meaning he is now onto 11 and one away from a Grand Prix ban.

Verstappen did apologise for the incident the day after the Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but it was still a move that had Russell scratching his head.

"He's a hard racer, simple as that, and he's sort of win it or win-it-or-bin-it kind of guy," the Mercedes driver started by saying to Channel 4.

"I'm not going to say anything negative about it because he's a four-time world champion, and I'm a zero-time world champion, so he's clearly doing something right. But there are obviously a lot of young kids who look up to all of the F1 drivers," continued the Brit on the role models that drivers should be out on the track.

"But as I said, we've got to focus on our stuff, and that's making the car go faster," concluded Russell.