The incident took place in an extraordinary last five laps after the late safety car.

Before that, Verstappen was third on the track after challenging McLarens in his three-stop strategy compared to their two.

When deploying safety vehicles, all leaders, as well as most areas of the field, prepare for fresh soft tires. But due to their three-stop strategy, Red Bull has limited options.

They had to choose to put Verstappen on his soft tires, and he made the choice on those eight laps. Or to complete a qualifying ring and another set of soft software replacements of the inner and legs, some exercises begin and bring a circle to the grid; or a new set of hardened tires.

Red Bulls principal Christian Horner admitted that in hindsight, the best option is to keep him out.

This will put Verstappen ahead. He would almost certainly lose to McLaren drivers, perhaps Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, but that would leave him fourth, better than he would have done on the road before free throws.

Instead, they took him to the fresh tires. Verstappen questioned his decision when he returned to the track, and then almost lost control at a large number of moments at the last corner of the restart as he struggled to keep pace with the surrounding Grippier tires.

He was immediately passed in a straight line by Leclerc, the two cars touched lightly as the track merged, and Russell entered the first corner where they hit the wheel.

Verstappen accused Russell of dismissing him from the track and was upset by the Leclerc incident. But after the administrator's investigation into him leaving the track and gaining an advantage began, Red Bull decided to let him let Russell pass by to avoid a fine.

Horner admitted that Verstappen was "apparently frustrated and annoyed" and "frustrated", but said they would discuss the matter internally.

Verstappen said he believes the biggest problem is F1's racing guide.

"What is allowed is not very natural," Verstappen said. "It's frustrating. Of course, sometimes it works for you, sometimes it doesn't work for you, and today it's not good for me."

Russell has the right to climb the corners, as he is more or less side by side with Verstappen - the rule says that the driver who passes inside must at least keep his car's front axle level with a wing mirror on one side.

The housekeeper had no further action on the incident with Leclerc on the straight, because "the two cars moved slightly from each other in the middle of the track, and thus had a slight collision.

“Both drivers believe this is an avoidable collision that has the potential to cause a major crash, but the driver is not entirely or primarily blamed.”

"Max wanted to take me to a place where there was all the (ripped tires) of rubber inside, so I didn't want to go there too much.