Russell, Verstappen, socials — Photo: © IMAGO

Spanish Grand Prix

New Verstappen and Russell crash footage reveals TRUTH over controversial penalty incident

Max Verstappen and George Russell were involved in a controversial incident at the Spanish Grand Prix

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 3 June 2025 20:57 Updated: 11:18

New footage has emerged from Max Verstappen and George Russell’s incident at the Spanish Grand Prix, which has offered a perspective from the Red Bull driver’s camp.

Verstappen was slammed with a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points were added to his FIA super licence after he allegedly intentionally hit Russell’s Mercedes after the safety car restart in Barcelona.

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Naturally, the collision has caused considerable debate, including calls from Nico Rosberg that Verstappen should have been disqualified, with the argument swinging between the respective fanbases online.

Amongst the discourse, a video emerged of Verstappen’s onboard footage during the collision where one fan denied that the move was intentional on Russell.

The footage shows that Verstappen only steered to the left and never made a steering movement to the right, perhaps ruling out that he deliberately crashed into Russell.

“Max's move was aggressive and deserved a penalty, yes, but calling it intentional or malicious is a stretch,” a user wrote underneath the video

“The onboard shows a misjudgement, not a deliberate act.”

Could Verstappen have prevented the Russell incident?

However, the debate also turned to whether Verstappen could prevent a collision with Russell, with one fan pointing out that the Dutchman turned his wheel in 0:11 seconds into the video.

This detail also led some to point out that the hard tyres on Verstappen’s Red Bull made it more difficult for the champion to turn, and therefore prompted the collision.

Other users looked closely at the steering wheel for evidence, which they saw also as being firmly turned towards the left and showed to them the incident was not intentional.

Regardless of the endless debate and varying perspectives, the fact remains that Verstappen lost a huge haul of points due to the penalty, and has severely hindered his chances of a fifth world title for unnecessary driving at the Spanish GP.

Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes George Russell