Mercedes driver said world champion threatened him and that it was time someone stood up to the Dutchman’s bullying
The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has defended his driver Max Verstappen in the world champion’s increasingly ill-tempered feud with Mercedes’ George Russell and dismissed their very public falling out as part of an end of year “pantomime season” before this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The pair’s relationship has endured a series of flashpoints in the past but may have now irrevocably broken down. At the annual end of season drivers’ dinner on Thursday, Russell, apparently offered a seat next to him by Verstappen, chose instead to pointedly move the chair to sit next to his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
“A lot has been made of it yesterday, it is pantomime season, we are getting ready for Christmas so maybe there is an element of end-of-term blues there.” Lewis Hamilton walks in the Mercedes paddock prior to practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit. Photograph: Joe Portlock/Getty Images
On track in Abu Dhabi, when Formula One draws the curtain on its longest ever season, it does so with at least a sense of occasion. The meeting will not only decide the constructors’ championship, a moment of no little import to protagonists McLaren and Ferrari, but will also mark the end of an era as Hamilton bids farewell to the Mercedes team with whom he has enjoyed unparalleled success.
If there were to bring it home in Abu Dhabi and it would represent a remarkable turnaround from the nadir of the mid-2010s when they finished ninth twice. To do so, among the various permutations the simplest is that a win for either Norris or Piastri would do the job, as would either driver finishing in front of both Ferraris.
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