The Red Bull driver looked poised to secure a top-three finish for most of the race on Sunday in Barcelona. However, a car breakdown by Kimi Antonelli late in the event triggered a safety car that lasted nearly four laps.
All the frontrunners, including McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, opted to pit for fresh soft tyres for the final segment of the GP.
However, Verstappen had already made three pit stops, leaving the Red Bull team with no choice but to equip him with a set of hard tyres for the final laps.
This decision frustrated Verstappen momentarily, before he became involved in an incident with Charles Leclerc, where the Ferrari driver made contact while overtaking for third place. As Verstappen demanded on the radio to reclaim his position, Russell intervened from behind, forcing his rival off the track.
Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase quickly instructed Verstappen to relinquish P4 to Russell, prompting an outburst from the four-time champion. He ultimately collided with Russell as the Brit attempted to secure P4, resulting in a 10-second time penalty for Verstappen, which dropped him to 10th place and left him with just one point from an otherwise competitive race.
Following the debrief, Verstappen was visibly irritated by reporters pressing him about the incident.
“Does it matter?” he replied when questioned about the intentionality of the crash. “I prefer discussing the race as a whole rather than one isolated moment,” Verstappen continued. “If there are any,” he responded when it was suggested that the penalty jeopardized his chances in the drivers’ championship. He currently sits at 138 points, while Piastri leads with 186, and Norris follows closely behind at 176.
“I think we are too slow to contend for the title regardless. That was apparent again today,” he stated. “We aimed for a three-stop strategy, and I think it worked well. It was certainly aggressive, but necessary due to significant tyre degradation. So, I consider it a positive.”
“Unfortunately, the safety car came out at the end, and we effectively ran out of tyres, with the hard compound clearly unsuitable. With only six laps remaining, everyone could push to the limit. I was significantly limited for grip on the hard tyres,” Verstappen elaborated.
The 27-year-old has accumulated 11 penalty points thus far, and reaching 12 before the end of June will result in a race ban. Team principal Christian Horner has urged him to maintain clean races moving forward, with the Canadian GP and Austrian GP set for June 15 and June 29, respectively. Avoiding further penalties in those events will alleviate that pressure starting in July. Verstappen has claimed victory in two out of the nine races this season, while Piastri has secured five wins.
