George Russell and Max Verstappen’s 2025 Formula 1 seasons have been intertwined since the opening race in Australia.
Last season, tensions were increasing between George Russell and Max Verstappen after an incident during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.
A complaint in the steward’s room led to a one-place grid penalty for the Red Bull driver, which only spurred him on to go and win the race and extend his lead at the top of the drivers’ championship, having already won his fourth title.
This year, the pair have clashed on track, with Verstappen penalised for driving into Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 284 2 275 3 187 4 172 5 151 6 109 7 64 8 54 9 37 10 27
However, the biggest talking point has been whether Verstappen could move to Mercedes in 2026, which would potentially leave Russell looking for a race seat elsewhere.
Those rumours appear to have been put to bed, with Russell set to sign a new deal with the Silver Arrows soon.
The Hungarian Grand Prix saw the gap between the two drivers close to just 15 points as the Mercedes driver secured his sixth podium finish of the season.
Russell admitted that Verstappen’s disappointing weekend was ‘strange’, and the Dutch driver would likely agree.
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Photo by Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesGeorge Russell calls Max Verstappen’s result ‘strange’ at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Russell was asked in his interview with Sky Sports F1 (3/8, 4:40 pm) about Charles Leclerc’s struggles and how he caught up to the Ferrari driver in the closing stages and said: “We presumed something was not right.
“The only thing we can think of is that they were running the car too low to the ground, and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint because they were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank wear.”
When Russell was told it was a chassis issue, he surmised: “He’s not going to tell you that they’re close to being illegal!
“That’s the only thing we can think of, based upon the lap times, the engine mode they were running and stuff like that.
“But, nevertheless, really pleased with the result. A strange weekend, when you exclude McLaren, and you’re looking at the order of P3 to P13.
“It’s quite odd, you wouldn’t expect Max to be quite so far down. Aston had an amazing weekend.
“So, we’ll take the positives, but we won’t get carried away with it.”
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Max Verstappen frustrated during unheard team radio at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Typically on a race weekend, Red Bull will start slowly during practice and build up their performance in time for qualifying and the race itself.
However, as soon as Verstappen admitted on Saturday that he was happy simply to reach the top 10 shootout, it was clear Red Bull were in trouble.
RANKDRIVERTEAMPOINTS1Lando NorrisMcLaren252Oscar PiastriMcLaren183George RussellMercedes154Charles LeclercFerrari125Fernando AlonsoAston Martin106Gabriel BortoletoSauber87Lance StrollAston Martin68Liam LawsonRacing Bulls49Max VerstappenRed Bull210Kimi AntonelliMercedes1
Red Bull couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong with the car, and unfortunately for Yuki Tsunoda, he had managed to get closer to Verstappen than ever before at the track where their car was the slowest.
Verstappen was heard complaining on the team radio at the chequered flag, as a poor strategy decision meant he had to stop late in the race and could only finish ninth.
The battle between Russell and Verstappen looks set to be the perfect foil to the championship fight between the two McLaren drivers during the final 10 races.