30 April 2023 , 10:27
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Max Verstappen said talks with George Russell were "not necessary" despite angrily calling the Mercedes racer a "d***head" in Baku.
Sergio Perez won Saturday's Sprint on the streets of Azerbaijan, but the main story of the short-form race was the battle for third place. Verstappen came out on top, but only after a first-lap battle which saw contact made between himself and Russell.
The Dutchman raged about it over the radio during the race, before gaining the place back from the Mercedes star later in the Sprint. But he was still very angry about it after the event as he sought out Russell before turning the air blue.
TV cameras missed the first part of the tirade, though Russell later said there were "a lot of F-words". In the part of the confrontation which was audible on the broadcast, Verstappen shouted: "We all have no grip, we all need to leave a little bit of space. Next time you can expect the same. D***head."
Asked on Sunday if he had sought out Russell since to talk more about the incident in private, Verstappen said: "It's not necessary. I mean, we just have to focus on what we can do today and try to score as many points as possible."
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The hole in the sidepod of his car has been fixed and the defending champion is hoping to improve from second on the grid for the main race. "We are allowed to repair these things so today we can have a strong race," he added.
Verstappen declared it was "not necessary" to speak with Russell more about their confrontation (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)Reacting to the incident on Saturday, Sky Sports pundit Damon Hill had little sympathy for Verstappen as he absolved Russell of any blame. Colleague Naomi Schiff also felt the Brit was well within his rights to fight hard for the overtake.
Hill said: "I can see that Max had the line, was slightly ahead and was thinking to himself, 'I'm not going to yield but I'm going to try to stay out of George's way'. But George definitely couldn't turn the car hard enough. But it's racing. If he wanted to stay out of trouble, he should have got pole position. That's the best way to stay out of trouble.
"It's the default mindset of someone like Max, that they're always right. It was the same with Michael [Schumacher] and Ayrton Senna – basically, they have to be the guys who don't make mistakes, other people makes mistakes. I don't think George will feel bad about it at all. He absolutely went for it and, as Max's engineer said, they've got nothing to lose. So he should have taken that into account."