Bottas did 'Verstappen move' on Russell: 'Are you trying to kill us?'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The huge crash between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell caused a red flag in Imola. Both drivers went off hard and afterwards blamed each other for the crash. Russell was not soft on the Sky Sports cameras either.
Verstappen move
Russell explains what happened in his eyes during the race. "I got closer to Bottas very quickly. I had the slipstream and DRS. When I wanted to overtake him he came slightly to the right. A tactical defence like the Verstappen move from 2015. You don't do something like that, it's hugely dangerous."
In addition, according to Russell, it was mainly the difficult conditions that caused the crash. "In dry conditions there wouldn't be much of a problem, but I hit the wet grass and lost control of the car. An accident, but at 300 kilometres per hour you have to respect the speed and conditions. We are going incredibly fast and we know the conditions."
Interaction with Bottas
Shortly after the crash, footage showed Russell moving towards Bottas. Russell tells the camera what he said to Bottas. "I said: are you trying to kill us?" Bottas answered with a middle finger.
The crash also threw a spanner in the works for Williams ' chances of scoring points for the first time since 2019 after Nicholas Latifi had also previously crashed out. "We are fighting for P9 which means everything and I could have easily made it. But like I said, there is a gentleman's agreement that always said it will cause a massive collision and here we are."