Max Verstappen compared to British 'bad boy' driver

George Russell has hinted that the only driver he believes would have equal Max Verstappen's delibrate ramming of him in the Spanish Grand Prix is Formula E's Dan Ticktum. 

Verstappen moved to the brink of a race ban after the Lap 64, Turn 5 incident in Barcelona where he appeared to be letting Russell through to potentially negate a penalty from the stewards for gaining an advantage having been forced wide at Turn 1 on the Lap 61 restart.

Verstappen appeared to slow to let Russell past, and then, from helicopter shots, appeared not to turn into the left-hander, ramming into Russell, a move the Mercedes felt delibrate. 

As well as a 10-second time penalty dropping him to P10, Verstappen picked up three penalty points, moving him to 11 for the 12-month period, with his next set not coming off until after the Austrian GP on June 30th. He is just one point from an automatic race ban. 

Post-race, Russell was shocked at Verstappen's tactics in the fight, with normally staunch Red Bull ally Helmut Marko also refusing to address the incident. 

As his session debriefing with the media including RacingNews365 came to a close, Russell was asked: 'Is there any other driver in the world who would do that, in your view?', to which his response began with: "Not in Formula 1.

"Maybe in Formula E, yeah, maybe one British driver in Formula E, but Max is one of the best in the world, and yeah, it would be intriguing to know what he was thinking."

The inference to Ticktum refers to the current Cupra Kiro Formula E driver, who was once banned as a teenager for overtaking multiple cars behind the safety car in what is now British F4 to deliberately crash into a rival, eliminating both.