Verstappen takes aim at rival Russell after Qatar victory

He may have wrapped up the championship but Max Verstappen was still ready to court controversy after his victory in Qatar on Sunday.

Feeling aggrieved after he was bumped from pole position a day earlier after being adjudged to have blocked George Russell - who was promoted to first after the Dutchman was given a one-place grid drop - Verstappen took aim at the Mercedes driver afterwards.

"I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards' room, what was all going on," Verstappen said. "Honestly, very disappointing because I think we're all here, we respect each other a lot and, of course, I've been in that meeting room many times in my life, in my career with people that have raced, and I've never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.

"And that for me… I lost all respect."

Fuelled by his sense of injustice, Verstappen blasted past Russell into the first corner at the Losail circuit and never looked back, though the chasing pack did little to help themselves.

The Red Bull Racing man watched in his mirrors as his rivals picked up penalties for basic misdemeanours - speeding in the pitlane, ignoring yellow flags and passing under the safety car - seeing him to a comfortable ninth victory of the season.

He continued: “It was nice to win in the dry as well, it has been quite a few races since we’ve achieved that. It was definitely not a boring race and there was a lot to manage with the restarts and safety cars throughout, but we learned from that and were able to stay in front.

“I am very proud to win here in Qatar, and proud of the Team for our performances this weekend, it is a great track and one of my favourites on the calendar.”

It was a disappointing day for Sergio Perez though. Despite running in the points, and looking in a promising fifth place after a safety car period, the Mexican’s car ground to a halt, spinning him out of the race.

He said: “I was warming up the tyre, getting ready for the restart, I had a massive over delivery as I was picking up the throttle out of turn 12. With cold tyres I couldn’t control it, it basically meant I lost the car and then lost drive from that point onwards. It is quite disappointing to end up like this.

“I think the season hasn’t been great for me, there has been a lot of up and downs and we have a few things to review there.”