I’m not going to take Verstappen attacks – Russell

George Russell says Max Verstappen “cannot deal with adversity” as the Mercedes driver responded to the world champion’s comments that he had “lost all respect” for him.

Verstappen was unhappy about the role Russell played in the Red Bull driver being given a one-place penalty which demoted him from pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend.

Briton Russell said at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Thursday: “I don’t know why he felt the need for this personal attack and I’m not going to take it.

“This is me just setting the record straight, I am not going to stand here and let someone slam me personally.”

Russell said that after they left the stewards’ room in Qatar after qualifying, Verstappen swore while saying he would “purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and put me on my head in the wall”.

Russell added: “I knew that was a spur of the moment thing, but the next day, we were joking around a bit with (Sergio) Perez and Carlos (Sainz), I saw it in his eyes that he meant it.

“He’s a four-time champion. Lewis (Hamilton) is the champion I aspire to be – hard but fair; never beyond the line. We have a duty as drivers.

“For a world champion to come out and say he is going to go out of his way to crash into someone and put him on his head, that is not the example we should be setting.”

After Russell’s comments, Verstappen spoke to Dutch publication De Telegraf and accused the Mercedes driver of being “a backstabber” and “a loser”, adding: “He lies and pastes all kinds of things together that aren’t true.”

Asked about Russell’s claim that he said he would deliberately crash into him, Verstappen said: “That’s not true. I didn’t say it like that. He’s trying to exaggerate it again.”