Marko demands Russell 'stick to the truth' after Verstappen denies ...

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko says the George Russell and Max Verstappen spat has “blown up too much” and accused Russell of not telling the truth.

Complaining about a “dangerous”, slow-moving Verstappen in Qatar qualifying, Russell found himself promoted to pole as Verstappen dropped to P2 after the stewards issued a one-place grid penalty. Verstappen was left far from impressed with a now infamous stewards’ room exchange and drivers’ parade confrontation following.

Helmut Marko tells George Russell: ‘Stick to the truth’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The saga evolved into a war of words at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, but among the verbal jabs launched both ways, was a serious claim from Russell that Verstappen had threatened to crash into him deliberately and “put me on my f***ing head in the wall”.

Verstappen denied that he had threatened to do such a thing.

“That’s already wrong, I didn’t say that. He’s trying to flesh it out again,” Verstappen told the Dutch media, as per De Telegraaf, when quizzed on that Russell claim.

“You know what I can’t stand either? That he attacks me in an unacceptable way at the stewards and then comes running back a day later as if nothing is wrong and slaps me on the shoulders.”

Marko believes the whole situation has been blown out of proportion, but pointed the finger at Russell for – in Marko’s view – not being fully honest.

“It has indeed blown up too much and it should actually stay among the drivers,” Marko told Sky Germany.

“But above all, one has to stick to the truth. I think this is basically maybe a discussion you should just have among yourselves.”

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Marko also took aim at how he believes drivers are scrambling for team radio to chase a penalty for another driver.

As well as the Russell and Verstappen incident, on race day Verstappen was heard on team radio querying whether Lando Norris had slowed under yellow flags down the straight. The stewards decided to investigate and issued Norris with a 10-second stop/go penalty.

“At the slightest offence, people immediately complain and instruct the team principal to turn to the stewards,” said Marko.

“That’s ‘booing’ – it’s actually not worthy of our sport.”

However, Verstappen made it clear that he was not fishing for a Norris penalty.

“It was just a normal question,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I mean, I knew that I lifted, and I suddenly look in the mirror, and I saw that the gap closed up a lot. So I just asked, did he lift or not, just to double-check.

“Of course, sometimes with yellow flags, some people lift more than others. And yeah, you can gain some tenths here or there. I luckily tried to play it safe, and then just asked and see the outcome of it.”

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