"I've never seen someone screw someone over that hard": Max Verstappen's blunt assessment of George Russell's antics in the stewards' room
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen did not mince his words while revealing the behavior of Mercedes driver George Russell in the stewards' room after the qualifying session at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix. The four-time F1 world champion had momentarily found himself in pole position for the first time since the Austrian GP earlier in the year after he pipped Russell by a mere 0.055s.
The Dutch driver was penalized by the stewards for blocking the Brit while both drivers were on a slow lap before the final run in the Q3 session. While Verstappen managed to improve his time, Russell failed to do so and claimed that he followed the delta while the pole-sitter didn't.
In their decision, the stewards accepted that it was a "complicated" situation but decided to penalize Verstappen and gave him a one-place grid penalty which demoted him to P2 while Russell inherited the P1 slot.
During his post-race press conference, the 63-time race winner spoke about the whole situation and gave a blunt assessment, saying:
"I've been in the meeting room (stewards) many times, and I've never seen someone screw someone over that hard, and that for me, I lost all the respect."
Max Verstappen gives his detailed take on George Russell's demeanor in the stewards' room
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that he was "quite surprised" by what occurred in the stewards' room after the qualifying session.
Speaking with PlanetF1, the world champion said:
“I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards' room with what was all going on. Honestly, I couldn’t believe that I got it, but in a way, I was also like I’m not surprised anymore in the world that I live in. So yeah, you’re not happy with it, but at one point also you have to just turn the page.
“But it wasn’t very enjoyable to see that happen because I think that’s the first time that in the slow lap, someone has been penalized. I just tried to be nice, so maybe I shouldn’t be nice. But I was being nice because we are at the end of the season, and everything is more or less decided, especially for me, I didn’t want to screw anyone over to prepare their lap."
Max Verstappen wasted no time in passing George Russell on the track as he took the lead heading into Turn 1 and led throughout the race on Sunday night.