George Russell fires back at 'bully' Max Verstappen and claims F1 star made sinister threat to him at Qatar GP

George Russell has hit back at criticism from Max Verstappen in an extraordinary new interview.

Ahead of Sunday's race at the Qatar Grand Prix, a frustrated Verstappen lost pole position after he was hit with a one-place grid penalty following an incident with Russell during the final part of qualifying.

Having secured the world title in Las Vegas, Verstappen produced an outstanding lap to seal pole but in a controversial twist, he was summoned to the stewards for driving too slowly in preparation for his fast lap.

Russell, meanwhile, accused him of "super dangerous" driving.

Verstappen has since accused Russell of trying to “screw him over hard” in the stewards room after qualifying but now, on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Russell has responded in no-nonsense fashion.

Speaking to a group of reporters, he began: "I find it all quite ironic considering Saturday night he said he's going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and, quote, 'Put me on my f***ing head in the wall'.

"So to question someone's integrity as a person while saying comments like that the day before, I find very ironic.

"I’m not going to sit here and accept it. People have been bullied by Max for years now and you can't question his driving abilities [but] he cannot deal with adversity, whenever anything has gone against him, Jeddah '21, Brazil '21, he lashes out. Budapest this year, the very first race car wasn't dominant, crashing into Lewis, slamming his team.

"For me, those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary because what happens on track - we fight hard - it's part of racing. What happens in the stewards room, you fight hard, but it's never personal.

"But he’s taken it too far now."

In an interview with Dutch broadcaster Viaplay after the race in Qatar, Verstappen said: “I have a lot of respect for a lot of drivers, but after last night I completely lost that respect for him [Russell]."

He added: “I just thought it was ridiculous how he tried to force a penalty on me. And I was heavily pissed at him for that. He always does it very nicely here in front of the camera, but then when you’re inside with him in person, it’s just a different person.

“I can’t stand that and it’s actually better for him to f*** off. I don’t want to get involved in this.”

Image credit: Getty

Asked if he was planning to speak to Verstappen in the near future, Russell replied: "I've got no interest in talking to him about it because I don't have any interest in making amends because I think it's his problem to deal with and I’m not going to lose any sleep over it."

Russell was then asked why other drivers don't stand up to Verstappen.

"I just don't know why other drivers, when they've been in this battle with him, have made it so easy and just let it be," he added.

"Lewis [Hamilton] is a world champion who I aspire to be like. And he's the gold standard role model that younger kids should be looking up to and the way Lewis dealt with that championship fight, he was hard, he was aggressive, he was always respectful and he never went beyond the line.

"You can go beyond the line in making a slight misjudgement, but going out of your way to say you'll purposefully crash into someone and put them on their head is beyond the line."