Max Verstappen accused of threatening to put bitter rival's 'f***ing head in the wall’

Max Verstappen has been accused of threatening to put a bitter rival's “f****** head in the wall” by deliberately crashing into him at the Qatar F1 Grand Prix.

The F1 Champion and George Russell's feud has hit eighth gear in the build up to Sunday’s Formula One season finale in Abu Dhabi. Mercedes star Russell labelled the four-time world champ a “bully” and saying he has "lost respect for him". The Dutchman has since bitten back by calling him a “backstabber” and “loser”. Sparks have flown between the two since a one-place grid penalty was placed on Red Bull’s Verstappen last weekend in Qatar for driving “unnecessarily slowly” to block the British speedster.

Russell, 26, said: “Whenever anything is not going his way he lashes out with unnecessary anger and borderline violence. He said to me he is going to purposely go out of his way to crash into me and put my ‘f***ing head in the wall’. I saw in his eyes that he meant it. I’ve lost respect for him. People have been bullied by Max for years. He’s been enabled because nobody’s stood up to him.”

Russell’s extraordinary press conference rant came after Verstappen accused him of lying to influence stewards over the Qatar incident. But Russell — who is a director of trade union the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association — hit back yesterday and said: “I don’t know why he felt the need for this personal attack and I’m not going to take it. People need to stand up to a bully like this. He cannot deal with adversity. There is nothing to lie about. He was going too slow.”

However, Verstappen denied Russell's claims he threatened to crash into him. He blasted: “That’s not true. He’s trying to exaggerate it again. He’s a backstabber. You shouldn’t talk too much about people like that,