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Red Bull boss Christian Horner has put down Nico Rosberg's claims that Max Verstappen should have been black-flagged in the F1 Spanish GP. The race in Barcelona made news for all the wrong reasons, as after the race questions were raised about the reigning F1 champion's conduct during the race.
The late race safety car was a pivotal point as it completely flipped Max Verstappen's race. The Dutch driver seemed destined to finish on the podium in P3 behind the McLaren duo, but the safety car meant that he had to pit for fresh hard tires. On the safety car restart, Verstappen was involved in an incident with George Russell that saw the Red Bull driver take evasive action and go off the track.
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In a bid to not have another penalty, Red Bull told Max Verstappen to give the position to George Russell. The 4x F1 champion was enraged by the instruction. While seemingly giving way to Russell, the Dutch driver ended up changing his mind at the last minute and ended up banging wheels with the driver.
The incident appeared to be intentional, and Nico Rosberg was furious during his live commentary stint with Sky Sports, where he demanded that Max Verstappen should be black-flagged for that incident.
Talking to the media, including Motorsportweek afterward, Red Bull boss Christian Horner put Nico Rosberg's comments down to him being a bit sensationalist while commentating. He said,
"Nico’s quite sensational in the way he commentates, so we’ll leave it there.”
Max Verstappen was also questioned about Nico Rosberg's comments where the German demanded that the Dutch driver should have been black-flagged. The Red Bull driver didn't delve too deep into it as he said,
"Yeah, that’s his opinion; everyone can have his opinion.”
What Nico Rosberg had said about Max Verstappen's clash
Nico Rosberg was on the commentary for Sky Sports when Verstappen ended up having the moment with George Russell. The German did not like the action of the Dutch driver, as he felt that it was intentional.
As soon as it happened, Rosberg called out Verstappen and demanded that he should be black-flagged. He said,
"He needs to get black flagged. He just crashed into Russell on purpose just to prove a point. That was horrible. That did not look good. That’s bad, bad, bad. That is seriously bad.”
Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty and 3 F1 penalty points that took his tally to 11. The threshold is 12 points, and if the driver does reach it, he will be banned for a race. The Spanish GP race weekend was a total disaster for Verstappen, as he is now 49 points behind the championship leader, Oscar Piastri, in the drivers' standings.
