Max verstappen handed huge penalty after spanish gp for george russell brawl

Max Verstappen was handed a dramatic penalty in the dying moments of the Spanish Grand Prix. It came after he appeared to ram into George Russell in the final few laps in anger amid a

bad-tempered duel with the Mercedes driver. Verstappen was already in a bad mood after having his strategy ruined by a late safety car. Kimi Antonelli stopped in the gravel after a power

unit failure, giving everyone the chance to pit for new tyres. But while most of the leaders stopped for soft tyres, Verstappen only had a set of the harder, slower compound available. So he

could kiss goodbye any chance he had of challenging the McLaren cars ahead and instead had to defend from behind. Charles Leclerc immediately moved past while Russell also nearly managed

it, but had to pull out when he tapped the wheel of the Red Bull. That infuriated Verstappen whose mood was not helped by his race engineer advising him to give the place to the Mercedes.

SIGN UP TO OUR FREE WEEKLY F1 NEWSLETTER, PIT LANE CHRONICLE, BY ENTERING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW SO THAT EVERY NEW EDITION LANDS STRAIGHT IN YOUR INBOX! He did, but not before he seemed to

intentionally bang wheels with Russell. "What the f***?" the Brit said over the radio, clearly stunned by Verstappen's actions – and the stewards were not at all pleased with

what he had done either. It wasn't long before it was announced that the four-time F1 champion had been handed a 10-second time penalty. That dropped him all the way down to 10th place

in the final classification, scoring just one single point while his McLaren title rivals finished first and second. Watching replays of that incident unfold in the cool down room after the

race, Lando Norris was the quickest to quip about what Verstappen had done. "I've done that before, in Mario Kart," said the Brit with a smirk. Oscar Piastri won from pole,

slightly extending his championship lead over team-mate Norris who was second. Leclerc managed to make his way up from seventh on the grid to the podium, while Russell inherited fourth place

from Verstappen. This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more Sky Sports F1 Formula 1 fans can watch every practice,

qualifying and race live with Sky's new Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in a new deal that saves £192. As well as Sky Sports access, this includes more than 100 TV channels and free

subscriptions to Netflix and Discovery+. A surprise result saw Nico Hulkenberg make it all the way up to fifth place, scoring a huge points haul for Sauber which lifted them off the bottom

of the constructors' standings. Alpine now foot the table, despite also scoring points with Pierre Gasly finishing eighth. Lewis Hamilton had hoped to challenge for his first Grand Prix

podium as a Ferrari driver, but struggled for pace throughout and had to settle for sixth place. Isack Hadjar continued his fine start to life in F1 in seventh while Fernando Alonso finally

scored his first points of 2025 in ninth, Verstappen rounding off the top 10.