The team boss was furious at what Christian Horner called George Russell’s football “dive”, revealing that Max Verstappen had confronted the Mercedes driver in a “little moment” at the drivers’ parade.

Verstappen was demoted from pole position to second on the grid for the Qatar Grand Prix after the stewards handed him an unusual one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly on an out lap in qualifying on Saturday.

Christian Horner confirms “moment” between Verstappen and Russell

After the slow Fernando Alonso, Verstappen was also slow on his build-up lap, as was Russell, except that the Mercedes driver almost ran over the Red Bull.

Russell called it dangerous and Verstappen was called to the stewards on Saturday evening, who gave him a penalty for one place on the grid.

Although he recovered and won the Grand Prix, his ninth win of the season, he was still angry with Russell, telling the media, including PlanetF1.com: “I’ve been in this meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I I’ve raced and never seen anyone try to screw someone over so hard.

“That I lost all respect (for Russell).”

But apparently it wasn’t the first time that Verstappen let Russell know exactly what he thought of his antics during the stewards’ meeting.

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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed this tellingly Sky F1: “I think there was a little moment between the two of them in the trailer when they were walking around the track or whatever earlier.

“But with Max, you know that yesterday he felt like it just went a little too far and he was so motivated, even more so than usual, going into this race.

“He delivered the greatest performance. I mean, he was like a metronome, lap after lap, taking care of the tires in the high-speed corners.”

Horner further compared Russell’s complaints to a football player “diving” to get a cheap punishment.

“I think for me it’s a bit like a football player taking a jump in the penalty area,” he said. “I mean, if anything, you’re going to argue that George was driving too fast behind, and he knew there were two cars in front of him going slower, neither of which were on racing laps.

“So I’m not entirely sure why we ended up with a penalty for one place. But if there was any extra motivation for Max, and there definitely was.

“These races are now cut finals for us. So, yeah, he’s finished.”

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