After securing pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was handed a stunning one-place grid penalty for impeding George Russell. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has some concerns.

In particular, he has identified Russell’s “hysteria” after the event as the main reason for Verstappen’s punishment – and he’s not happy.

Christian Horner describes George Russell’s Qatar GP as ‘hysteria’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

As Max Verstappen took a slow lap around the track before making his final attempt to take pole position in the final qualifying session before the Qatar Grand Prix, George Russell flew up behind him.

Intriguingly, Russell also did a slow lap, but was significantly faster than Verstappen and the other car in front of him. The Mercedes driver made an evasive maneuver by diving through the gravel trap – but that was enough for the race stewards to give Verstappen a one-place grid penalty.

Ultimately, Russell cited this drive through the gravel trap as the reason why he was unable to beat Verstappen’s fastest lap time.

And Christian Horner wasn’t happy.

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“Let’s just say he wasn’t happy with the decision,” Horner said of Max Verstappen when speaking to media outlets such as PlanetF1.com.

“It was a very strange decision because due to the circumstances of qualifying both cars were obviously doing slow laps and I felt George and Mercedes made a big profit out of it.”

Horner noted that it was “unprecedented” for a driver to be penalized for his slow lap in qualifying; He also pointed out that “you could argue that George may have been driving a little too fast on a slow lap with two cars in front of him. Maybe he was driving recklessly.”

Furthermore, he hinted that there may be some kind of mental game going on.

“Yesterday’s penalty was more based on George’s hysteria,” said Horner, “who was pretty hysterical this weekend.”

“I think there was a bit of playfulness involved.”

Although the penalty was “disappointing”, Horner said it gave Verstappen “extra enthusiasm to get off the line well” at the start of the race.

Max, he said, “was absolutely determined to win; Wherever George wanted to brake, he braked later, and at the end of Turn 1 he turned that starting position into the lead.”

The next day, during the race itself, Verstappen quickly intervened via radio to alert his team that Lando Norris was driving too fast in a double yellow zone. He was so insistent on seeing the McLaren driver punished that Max called Red Bull several times to check the status of the report.

“I think because Max had spent a little bit of confidential time with the stewards on Saturday, he was very keen for everything to be thoroughly investigated,” Horner said.

When asked whether Verstappen had read the sporting rules or not, Horner replied that he had.

“It’s part of a driver’s job,” he told the media.

He also pointed out that ignorance of the rules almost upset Verstappen during the race; Word came over the radio that the safety car would be deployed at the end of the lap, but the lights remained on.

“Then you have to keep your distance from the rear of the car,” said Horner. This meant Verstappen could not prepare for the restart as usual; he didn’t know if a reboot was actually imminent.

“He basically followed the safety car instructions and then it came into the pits, which then obviously put him at risk,” Horner said.

“But he was still lucky to stay ahead of Lando in Turn 1.”

Read more: Qatar GP driver ratings: Hamilton’s horror show, Zhou’s huge surprise