Threat of race ban ‘not changing my approach’ says Verstappen as he reveals talks with Russell after Spain clash

Max Verstappen has reflected that “we all live and learn” following his collision with George Russell last time out in Spain, with the Dutchman now keen to move on and “try to have a good weekend” at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Verstappen and Russell were involved in a controversial clash as the race in Barcelona was restarted following a Safety Car period in the latter stages, a phase in which most of the field took the opportunity to pit.

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The Red Bull driver, however, had only been left with a set of hard tyres, meaning that he was at a disadvantage to many of those around him on the soft compound.

As such, Verstappen was overtaken for P3 by Charles Leclerc on the main straight at the restart – where the pair briefly banged wheels in the process – before Russell then tried to make a move into Turn 1, the Mercedes also making contact with Verstappen which sent the Dutchman down the escape road.

When Red Bull told Verstappen to hand the position back to Russell, there was a second moment of contact between the two which earned Verstappen a 10-second time penalty, dropping him from P5 at the flag down to a final result of P10.

Verstappen wrote on social media the next day: “Our tyre choice at the end and some moves after the [Safety Car] restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn't have happened.”

READ MORE: Verstappen admits Russell contact ‘shouldn’t have happened’ in Spanish GP as Dutch driver nears race ban threshold

When asked during Thursday’s media day in Montreal whether he had any further reflections on the incident – as well as being quizzed on Russell’s revelation that there were “no issues” between the pair when they recently ran into each other at the airport – Verstappen answered: “Yeah, well not after the race immediately but we saw each other.

“Basically we were both travelling out – so all good. I think we all live and learn, right? And I explained, I mean, immediately on the Monday my view, so [we] just move on and try to have a good weekend here.”

Pushed on what he had learned on that Sunday in Barcelona, Verstappen elaborated: “I think it’s quite clear I got penalised for something, so try not to do that again.

“I mean there’s a lot to it, but we don’t need to go into detail.”

READ MORE: Russell 'surprised' Verstappen 'had taken responsibility' for Spain collision

The incident in Spain also resulted in Verstappen’s total number of penalty points rising to 11 – meaning that he is just one point away from the 12-point threshold that results in an automatic one-race suspension.

In terms of whether this will be on his mind during the weekend ahead in Canada, the 27-year-old said: “It’s there right, there’s nothing I can do about it, so we just focus ahead and try to do the best we can every single time. It’s not changing my approach and I cannot speak for others.”

And when asked how much missing a race would hurt, he responded: “If you look at it in general, yeah, missing a race is not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world.”

The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve has been a successful track for Verstappen in recent times, the Dutch driver having won the event consecutively for the past three years.

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However, as much as he would like to repeat this in 2025, Verstappen is not so sure that it will be the case this time around.

“I wish we would be as competitive as we were of course in the past, but I think the world has been a bit different for us at the moment,” the Red Bull man conceded.

“I think a realistic target for us is to try and be on the podium and try to fight with Ferrari and Mercedes, which I think is already hard enough for us. So we’ll try to do that.”