Christian Horner makes his feelings known about what happened in the Max Verstappen-George Russell meeting with stewards at F1 Qatar GP
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has backed Max Verstappen in the ongoing war of words between the driver and George Russell, as he claimed the Dutch driver does not lie. Last weekend, Verstappen secured pole position for the F1 Qatar GP from George Russell by .055 secs.
While Verstappen improved his lap-time on his last attempt, Russell was unable to do so. It was, however, later discovered that the Mercedes driver had to take evasive action on his prep lap from the Red Bull driving slowly on the racing line. After a meeting with the stewards, Verstappen was handed a one-place grid penalty for this incident, demoting him to second for the start of the race.
With both of the drivers sharing a contrasting view of what happened in the stewards' room, Christian Horner has backed his driver. He also said that the team members who accompanied the driver in the stewards' room also felt that George was "pretty punchy" during the meeting. Horner told Sky Sports (via planetf1),
"Max has no reason to lie. He’s never lied before. He’ll tell you straight. And of course, Max wasn’t the only one in that steward room. Both the guys that were with him on our side came back, and they were a bit, ‘Wow. That was pretty punchy’ of how George approached that.”
The Red Bull driver nullified the impact of the grid penalty on Sunday as he got the jump on the Mercedes driver into turn 1 and took the lead. Max Verstappen went on to win the race, and shared his wrath for George Russell after the race, calling out the Brit for what he saw as as the latter acting one way in front of the cameras and different afterward. This led to a retaliation from George Russell, who had a few things to say about the Red Bull driver as well.
Max Verstappen and George Russell need to sort it out "face-to-face" - Christian Horner
Christian Horner said regarding the ongoing row between Max Verstappen and George Russell that the two needed to sit down and sort it out between themselves. Talking about how that was a better idea than talking through the media, Horner said (via planetf1),
“George had a bit of a rant yesterday. He was ranting in the car last weekend at his team for putting the wrong tires on or whatever else. He’s obviously a bit wound-up at the moment. Rather than doing it through the media, or through you guys, just go and have a conversation. Talk about it man-to-man, face-to-face. If you’ve got something to say, say it. And rather than ‘he said, she said,’ far better to address it that way.”
With not much being said by either party on Friday, the situation may have died down a little. On the other hand, until we see the two burying the hatchet, this row could likely continue to simmer.