Why did Max Verstappen do THAT?

The Spanish GP had a dramatic end for Max Verstappen, who sees his options to ratify his championship get further and further behind: an inexplicable manoeuvre in the penultimate lap cost him a ten second penalty, dropping from fifth to tenth place. While Red Bull asked Verstappen through radio to let Russell pass him, he did not agree and made contact with Russell.

"I just got crashed into! I don't really know why or what the thinking was behind it. In the end, I'm glad that I continued with little damage and ultimately it punished him a lot more than me", Russell said, who complained about the Dutchman's behaviour, whom he has an irreparable relationship: "That's how Max goes racing".

"He was in P4, I was in P5, I ended up P4, he ended up P10, so from my side I'm glad that I managed to finish the race", the British driver said.

Verstappen explains why collided with Russell

Why did Red Bull asked him to let him be overtaken by the Mercedes driver? As he had hard tyres, he took the exit road and tried to gain advantage off track over Russell. His team warned him that he could get a penalty for doing that, so they recommended him to let Russell pass him. Verstappen complained on radio, and then appeared to back off and invite Russell to pass him, only to return to his position, colliding with him.

Verstappen didn't really explain why he collided with Russell, explaining that he got into the whole situation because he only had hard tyres, with a very low grip. "Basically, we just ran out of tyres. In hindsight, was it better to stay out? Maybe, I don't know. It's always easy to say afterwards."

Verstappen ended the race fifth, but with a ten second penalty, he fell to tenth position, winning only 1 point (and allowing Fernando Alonso to jump to ninth place and win his first two points). Meanwhile, with the usual double McLaren victory (Piastri first, Norris second), Verstappen gets left behind, 39 points behind Norris, second in the standings, and 49 points behind Piastri.