Christian Horner Shuts down ‘Sensationalist’ Nico Rosberg over Max Verstappen Clash Claim at Spanish GP

Christian Horner criticized Nico Rosberg for his controversial comments on Max Verstappen's incident with George Russel at the Spanish GP.

Christian Horner Shuts down ‘Sensationalist’ Nico Rosberg over Max Verstappen Clash Claim at Spanish GP

Nico Rosberg, Max Verstappen and Christian Horner (via IMAGO)

The Spanish GP ended on a massively disappointing note for Max Verstappen as he faced difficult consequences for his actions. Verstappen’s controversial collision with George Russell towards the final stages of the race was viewed with intense criticism. The commentator at the time, Nico Rosberg, called out the Dutchman to be shown a black flag due to these tactics. Now, Christian Horner has taken a dig at the 2016 F1 champion for his unwarranted comments towards the 27-year-old.

Max Verstappen was left seething after he was asked to swap positions with George Russell for the Turn 1 collision during the safety car restart. Russell also labeled the incident as ‘Mario Kart’ like, despite Verstappen clearly denying any ill intentions behind the collision. Nico Rosberg was present among the other commentators on Sunday, as even he believed the incident to be intentional on the part of the 27-year-old.

Rosberg had commented that Verstappen had to be shown a black flag immediately for the intentional collision with Russell. The German believed that the reigning world champion collided on purpose, just to prove his point. The former world champion even went so far as to label the entire incident ‘horrible,’ which did not look good on the Dutchman’s part, even though many others believed the entire ordeal to be a racing incident.

He needs to get black flagged. He just crashed into Russell on purpose just to prove a point. That was horrible. That did not look good. That’s bad, bad, bad. That is seriously bad.

Nico Rosberg commentated during the live race

Christian Horner has since shared his candid opinions on Nico Rosberg’s critical comments on Max Verstappen. The Red Bull boss dismissed the German’s claims as he often exaggerated the situations. The 51-year-old noted that Rosberg remained ‘sensational in the way he presented his opinions in the commentary box. The Briton refused to further comment on the matter and left it at that, as he now hopes to put the entire weekend behind him and start preparing for the upcoming Canadian GP.

Nico’s quite sensational in the way he commentates, so we’ll leave it there.

Christian Horner told media including PlanetF1

Max Verstappen issues uninterested statement over Nico Rosberg’s ‘opinion’

Max Verstappen was hit with not only a ten-second time penalty, effectively dropping him to P10 in the pecking order, but was also awarded three penalty points. Verstappen has now brought his point tally to 11 out of the allowed 12, surpassing which will get him a one-race ban. While he has joked about wanting to miss races multiple times, missing a race at this point might cause him to lose serious points in his championship standings.

Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

When questioned about what he thought of Nico Rosberg’s critical comments, Verstappen simply downplayed them. The 27-year-old pointed out that Rosberg’s comments were his own opinions, which did not matter much. The Dutchman reckoned that everyone was entitled to their opinions, as he refused to further comment on the status quo.

Yeah, that’s his opinion. He can have his opinion.

Max Verstappen said, as reported by PlanetF1

The Spanish GP weekend would definitely be a race weekend to forget for Max Verstappen as he walked out of the race with just a single point. The Dutchman lost massive ground in championship standings against his primary competitors, the McLarens. As such, the reigning world champion needs a miracle of performance now to remain in contention for the title towards the end of the season.

Also Read: George Russell Hits out at Max Verstappen over ‘Go-Karting’ Move During Spanish GP Clash