Upsetting Max Verstappen in Spanish GP ‘unleashed the lion’ in him

A series of frustrating incidents for Max Verstappen in the Spanish Prix unleashed the lion in him, believes Sky Sports F1 analyst Bernie Collins.

Verstappen endured a difficult afternoon in Barcelona on Sunday, crossing the line in fifth place before being relegated to 10th after a time penalty for an incident with George Russell late in the race.

Verstappen was angry over team radio at multiple points during the the race, first expressing his displeasure at Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman as they failed to give him room while he lapped them.

However, the matter reached its head when Kimi Antonelli stopped on track due to a mechanical failure late in the race, leading to an ill-timed safety car for the Dutchman.

The four-time world champion was left baffled by Red Bull’s decision to switch him to the slower hard tyre, especially when everyone around him had bolted on a set of soft or medium tyres.

Then, as the safety car peeled into the pits, Verstappen suffered a huge snap exiting the final corner, allowing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to demote him to fourth on the start/finish straight. The pair also made light contact as the Ferrari edged clear after crossing the start line.

Further, as he braked into Turn 1, he came to blows with Mercedes driver George Russell, forcing him to take to the escape road.

To make matters worse, Red Bull asked him to hand back the position to Russell, prompting an angry outburst over team radio.

This all culminated in Verstappen slowing down at Turn 5 and speeding back up again, leading to the controversial collision with Russell that has now left him just one penalty point shy of a race ban.

'Unleashed the lion' analogy about Max Verstappen at F1 Spanish GP

Former Aston Martin strategy engineer Collins believes the clash at Turn 5 was a result of the frustrating building up on Verstappen, as she joined Russell in questioning whether the Dutchman's move was intentional.

“This is all about temperament because at one point Max gets the news that he's on the hard,” she explained.

“He's already frustrated about the fact that he's on that hard tyre. It then goes wrong for him.

“He's told that the incident with the Leclerc is going to be ignored, so he's frustrated about that.

“He believes according to these very prescriptive rules that the drivers have now been given instructions on how they can and cannot overtake, he's done the right thing in that situation [at Turn 1] and George is in the wrong, and then he's told to give the position back.

“We know that with Max there was more than one or two reasons to get him upset. When you upset him, the lion comes out.

“Of course, that doesn't make it OK. But that frustrated him. And then when he gets to that moment with George [at Turn 5], I'm not even sure he fully gave the position back.  

“I don't know if he was actually in the right position to try to sort of make these rules look silly by saying, ‘OK, I'll do the same thing, prove to you guys that this is not how it works by doing it the other way around’.

“So yes, I do think it's bizarre that he's so far back and then all of a sudden, he comes off the brake a little bit and runs with a lot more speed into that corner than he would have done a lap before, so possibly intentional.”

The 10-time time penalty Verstappen received dropped him from fifth to 10th in the final order, leaving him with just a single point from the Barcelona weekend.

The reigning four-time world champion now faces a 49-point deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri, who scored his fifth weekend of the year in Spain, while Norris is 37 points clear of Verstappen in second position.

At the beginning of the race, Norris didn’t fight Verstappen too hard as they battled for second position into Turn 1, likely to avoid a collision that could have serious ramifications on his title chances.

Norris later eased past Verstappen before the end of the first stint to reclaim second, which is where he would finish the race.

Collins admitted that Verstappen’s title aspirations have taken a huge hit in Barcelona.

“It's massive and we talked about turn 1, lap 1 of the race,” she explained. “Norris was a bit conservative into turn1 but [he was] looking at the bigger picture in the championship, knowing that any loss of a race is massive in this championship. It will make huge differences.

“Max, through the race got more and more frustrated. Starts with blue flags, starts with the strategy not working out, is not as fast as he wants to be and it ends up unfortunately in a single point at this stage. “