George Russell frustrated with Max Verstappen qualifying antics: "He just slammed on the brakes"

George Russell was frustrated with Max Verstappen "slamming on the brakes" at the start of their final Q3 laps in Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix qualifying as the Mercedes driver narrowly missed out on pole.

Heading into the decisive qualifying run, Verstappen was leading a train with Kimi Antonelli and Russell, who were planning to work together to hand Russell the best possible slipstream as Antonelli was facing a grid penalty anyway.

But while Antonelli and Russell initially had a healthy buffer to the Red Bull car, towards the end of their out-laps - on the back straight before the Parabolica corner - the three cars were bunched up when Verstappen drove extremely slowly towards Monza's final corner. Verstappen accelerated right ahead of Antonelli, ensuring he and Russell were too close together for the Italian to give his Mercedes team-mate a tow.

Antonelli peeled off and abandoned his lap instead, while Russell also felt he was too close to the Dutchman to turn an optimal qualifying lap.

"We had a bit of a mess with Verstappen entering the lap," Russell fumed as he lost pole to Alpine's Pierre Gasly. "Everything was all looking fine but then going into Parabolica, Max just slammed on the brakes and he didn't want to be the lead car.

"It's just one of those things, you can't control what other people do. Kimi was there to give me the slipstream, which he did perfectly on the first run. But obviously with Max, I think it also made it difficult for Kimi to know what to do as well. So it was just a little bit unfortunate.

"I did my lap a second and a half behind Max, which wasn't ideal."

Verstappen acknowledged that he wanted to pick up a slipstream from Antonelli as well, which can easily make the difference between pole and qualifying off the front row in Monza. But the four-time world champion said he faced power unit trouble as he prepared for his flying lap, with his engine stuttering as he revved it up.

When asked if he wanted to force Antonelli past, he replied: "Yeah, but I was also trying to accelerate and then the engine cut out. I had so many things going on, it's super complicated."

But Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff there was no doubt Verstappen was playing "clever" games.

"Max, of course, did it very cleverly, he made everyone bunch up before the last corner," Wolff told Sky Germany. "That meant Kimi was too close for a good slipstream for George, and George then spent the whole lap within two seconds of Max. Especially in the Parabolica, he lost out because he was simply hanging on Max's gearbox."

Verstappen ended up in sixth, but will gain a place on Sunday's starting grid following Oscar Piastri's grid penalty for impeding Verstappen's team-mate Liam Lawson.

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