Horner clarifies Verstappen's incident with Russell

On the back of Max Verstappen's bizzare incident with Mercedes driver George Russell in the closing stages of last Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has revealed that the Dutchman "apologised in the debrief."

Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen was in contention for victory at the Spanish Grand Prix as he opted for an ambitious three-stop strategy.

However, a late safety car saw the field close up, and the Dutchman suffered a huge oversteer exiting the final corner as the safety car peeled into the pits. As a result of it, he lost his third place to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes driver George Russell also launched multiple attacks on Verstappen. Red Bull instructed Verstappen to hand the place back to Russell following their scarp at Turn 1.

With just three laps left to go, the Dutchman slowed down at Turn 5, and Russell completed the move on the outside, but the reigning champion appeared to speed back up again, leading to contact between the pair.

The four-time F1 champion would eventually let Russell through into Turn 11, but the stewards elected to hand out a ten-second time penalty to Verstappen for causing a collision at Turn 5.

In a post shared on his own Instagram account, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was left to rue the safety car that hampered Verstappen's three-stop strategy.

"Spain closes out the triple-header and we leave Barcelona frustrated that we didn’t take more from the race. As a team we attacked on the three-stop which was the better strategy and it was only the safety car which had us over. We would never have been as close to Lando if it wasn’t for the three-stopper.

"The safety car came out at the worst possible time for our strategy, we had the choice to stay out on older tyres or take the gamble with a new set of hard tyres.

"Hindsight is always 20/20, but we made the best decision at the time with the information we had. The result that followed was frustrating as it was looking to be an easy podium for Max and good championship points.

Signing off with a word for Verstappen's incident with Russell, Horner added: "Max apologised in the debrief for his incident with Russell. The SC also hurt Yuki’s race, he would’ve been very close if not in the points otherwise if you look at the trajectory he was on.

"But that’s racing. It can turn in a split second. It is one of the reasons we are all so captivated and in love with this sport. It was a tough weekend, but we will busy working hard over the next weeks to make some set-up improvements to the car and come back strong in Montreal."