Former F1 world champion Damon Hill recently reacted to George Russell’s comments on Max Verstappen after the latter received a one-place grid penalty in the Qatar GP qualifying. Russell said he was expecting a crash with the Dutchman at the start of the race.

In Lusail, Verstappen was able to take pole position in the qualifying session but was later investigated by the race stewards for impeding second-placed George Russell by driving necessarily slow. Both drivers discussed the matter with FIA officials. Eventually, the governing body gave a special one-place grid penalty to Verstappen and rewarded the pole position to George Russell.

Max Verstappen was furious with how George Russell pushed the race stewards to penalize the Dutchman. Hence, the Mercedes driver stated he expected a crash between him and Verstappen at the start of the 2024 F1 Qatar GP. He added that because of his and his teammate, Lewis Hamilton’s poor starts, the Red Bull driver got the advantage and overtook them on lap one.

“To be honest, I was expecting a crash, but ultimately we made it easy for him. Because both Lewis [Hamilton] and I made a terrible start, so there was pretty simple overtake for him, which was a bit frustrating for us,” Russell said. (via PlanetF1)
Later, Damon Hill reacted to Russell’s comments about speculating a crash with Verstappen before the race. He simply wrote that there was no love between the two drivers anymore, addressing their gradually brewing rivalry.

“No love no more,” Hill wrote.
Damon Hill reacted to George Russell's comment about crashing with Max Verstappen at the start of the 2024 F1 Qatar Grand Prix (Image via Instagram/96f1champ)Damon Hill reacted to George Russell’s comment about crashing with Max Verstappen at the start of the 2024 F1 Qatar Grand Prix (Image via Instagram/96f1champ)
Max Verstappen admitted that he ‘lost all respect’ for George Russell after Qatar GP’s incident
Max Verstappen gave his thoughts on George Russell pushing hard for him to get a penalty for impeding at the Qatar GP qualifying session. Speaking in the post-race press conference, he said that he was quite surprised by the way Russell tried to force a penalty on him, which made him lose respect for the Mercedes driver.

“I was quite surprised, when sitting there in the stewards’ room, what was all going on. It was honestly very disappointing, because I think all of us here, we respect each other a lot,” Verstappen said.
“I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I’ve raced. And I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard. For me, I lost all respect,” he added.
Despite the one-place grid penalty, Max Verstappen was able to overtake Russell on lap one and win the race. Meanwhile, Russell lost several places and secured P4.

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