Verstappen Penalized, Dropped to 10th
The flashpoint came when Verstappen seemed to move onto George Russell’s Mercedes, a manoeuvre that the British driver, himself said the world champion had “let himself down” with. That prompted Verstappen to receive a 10-second time penalty, which relegated him from fifth to 10th in the final classification. He was also handed three penalty points on his licence, giving him a total of 11 – just one shy of a race ban.

The 27-year-old initially laughed off Russell’s response with a tweet saying he'd "bring some tissues next time" and labelled the incident a "misjudgement." But his tune switched the next day when he took the matter more seriously on social media.

Verstappen on Emotions and Teamwork
In his text message Verstappen wrote the race had a new "interesting" strategy and "great pace went down the drain due to a safety car period. Previously, he said the team's tyre strategy and what happened after the restart made things more difficult and he drove too stubbonly. “It was a move that shouldn’t have happened and it was wrong but that doesn’t make him a bad person, mistakes were made and the thing about a kid is that emotions can get the best of you especially in the heat of the moment,” he said, while pointing out that he would do anything for the team.

The result of the race extended the gap in the championship standings, with Verstappen now sitting 49 points adrift of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Piastri won in Barcelona from teammate Lando Norris to further bolster McLaren's title challenge.