Mercedes driver George Russell has made it known that he met Max Verstappen and his newborn daughter Lily at the airport, soon after their Barcelona incident. In the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen slammed his car into Russell’s Mercedes on lap 64 of the 66-lap race.

The whole fiasco caused Max Verstappen to drop down to P10 at the end of the race following a 10-second time penalty. Russell, on his end, managed a fourth-place finish behind Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri.

In line with Russell and Verstappen’s airport meet, the former, ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, added:

“We bumped into each other at the airport on Sunday morning when I was going to Roland Garros. To be honest, I totally forgot about Barcelona because he was there with his newborn [baby], and we were at the security machine. He just had a quick chat and then he was busy folding the pram down to put it through the machine.” Russell said via Sky F1.

The 2025 Formula 1 season is nine rounds down, and Max Verstappen is currently in third place in the drivers’ championship with 137 points. George Russell is in fourth with 111.

George Russell feels Max Verstappen was ‘trying to get his elbows out’ in the Spanish GP.

While George Russell has shed light on bumping into Max Verstappen ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, via the same Sky F1 interaction, he also took the time to specifically talk about their Barcelona incident.

In line with this, the Brit felt that Verstappen was trying to scare him by getting his ‘elbows out’ in the lap 64 incident.

“That’s why I believe he wasn’t intentionally trying to crash into me. He was just trying to get his elbows out and show who’s boss. But he got it wrong. Jos [Verstappen’s father] is the boss! I’m going to continue racing exactly the same way because at the end of the day that’s what I did last week and I benefited from it.” Russell added.

George Russell has taken up the mantle of lead driver on the Mercedes Formula 1 team this year. With the departure of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at the end of the 2024 season, the responsibility has fallen majorly on his shoulders to deliver consistent results.

His rookie teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli is relatively new to the world of Formula 1 and is thus, prone to mistakes. In the Spanish GP as well, Antonelli came away with a DNF. The Italian is in seventh place in the standings with only 48 points.

Round 10 of the 2025 season is the Canadian Grand Prix (as mentioned earlier), and George Russell would ideally like to secure a podium, building on his P4 from the Spanish GP.