Max Verstappen said he has “lost all respect” for George Russell after the Mercedes driver campaigned to get the Dutchman penalised.

Verstappen was handed an unusual one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessary slowly in qualifying but the Red Bull driver was disappointed at how his fellow competitor had been desperate to get him penalised.

Max Verstappen ‘lost all respect’ for George Russell

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Despite both being on slow laps, Russell nearly hit the back of Verstappen as the Dutchman followed the also slow-moving Fernando Alonso, an incident which the stewards deemed Verstappen to be at fault.

But perhaps the part that was most disappointing for Verstappen was the actions of Russell, who Verstappen said he had never “seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.”

“I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards room with what was all going on,” he told media including PlanetF1.com after his win in Qatar.

“Honestly, very disappointing, because I think we’re all here. We respect each other a lot and of course, I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I’ve raced and I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.

“That for me, I lost all respect [for Russell].”

On the penalty itself, Verstappen said that while he could not believe he was penalised, nothing surprised him anymore.

“Honestly I couldn’t believe that I got it, but in a way, I was also like I’m not surprised anymore in the world that I live in,” the four-time World Champion said.

“So yeah, you’re not happy with it, but at one point also you have to just turn the page.

“But it wasn’t very enjoyable to see that happen because I think that’s the first time that in the slow lap, someone has been penalised.

“I just tried to be nice, so maybe I shouldn’t be nice. But I was being nice, because we are at the end of the season, everything is more or less decided, especially for me, I didn’t want to screw anyone over to prepare their lap.

“And by doing that, you know, being nice, basically, you get a penalty. And that’s what I tried to explain as well. But I just felt like I was talking to a brick wall.

“I think I really spoke about valid reasons for what happened and it was clear cut that around me, there were different scenarios going on as well, with people having colder tyres and stuff, so they have to push anyway, and I didn’t want to then cause a scene into the last corner. So, very, very surprising.”