"Emotions simply got the better of him," Marko reflects on Verstappen's incident with Russell

On the back of Max Verstappen's hectic end to the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko conceded that he does not "know what kind of misjudgment or thought process was going on inside him."

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.

Speaking of the restart on Servus TV, Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko revealed the reasons why the Milton Keynes-based outfit asked the four-time F1 champion to let Russell through.

“On the straight, I’d say Leclerc drove into Max’s car. Then came the situation with Russell. And you have to say, Max knows the regulations in detail. He immediately said, ‘Hey, he was out of control, and that’s why I had to go wide.’

“The internal discussion was that it was 50-50. And since it happened right after the safety car period, the impact of a 10-second penalty is much greater than if it happens mid-race. So, that was one thing. Max didn’t want to give the position back. But he was instructed to do so – he did it under protest.

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.

Reflecting on the incident that saw Verstappen deliberately drive into Russell's Mercedes, Marko has revealed that"Max lifted off the throttle, so we all assumed he was letting Russell through.

"And then suddenly he accelerated again. I don’t know what kind of misjudgment or thought process was going on inside him. And then, as they say, all hell broke loose.

“There have already been issues in the past. It was unnecessary, and a lot of points lost. But, because of all the incidents and wrong decisions that unfortunately happened, emotions simply got the better of him.”