Verstappen and Russell came to blows as they battled over third place on the opening lap of the 🐲Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint race, with contact between the pair leaving a hole in the sidepod of th🅷e Red Bull. 

Championship leader Verstappen was left fuming at the incident and called Russell a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:“d**khead” in parc ferme, before later referring to the Mercedes driver as 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:‘Princess George’ to Dutch media. 

Responding to Verstappen’s comments, Russell said the two-time world champion had168澳洲5最新开奖结果: “let himself down” with his “unnecessary” post-race rant. 

Analysing their war of words, Hill felt♍ it was a case of neither driver wanting to be viewed as “the weak link”. 

"[It was💯] playground stuff,” Hill said on the F1 Nation Podcastꦗ. 

"They're yo꧃ung lads, 25 years old, and they have fought in these competitions all their life. They make i𓄧t known that they're not to be messed with. 

“You can't be the weak link can you. You can’t be the guy that can be rolled over. So they do puff their chests out from time to time and you g꧒et those confrontations. 

“Sometimes a word can be very hurtful, sometimes it’s water off a duck’s back.”&𒁃nb🐷sp;

Hill, who 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:heavily criticised Verstappen over the Baku we𒆙ekend, initially defended Russell in the direct aftermath of the incident. 

Upon further reflection, Hill sugg🤪ested Russell had perhaps beenꦉ “a bit impetuous” with his move on Verstappen. 

“He showed that he’s going for the gap and as ✨Ayrton [Senna] said, ‘if you are not going for the gap you’re not a racing driver’,” he explained. 

Hill added: "Since they've made the cars more robust, banging wheels is seen as more acceptab🤡le.

"But when you go into the sidepod of someone and damage their aero and potentially put them out of the race, then th🐽at is 🥂probably a bit too much. I would like to see less contact but it's very difficult to ask people to provide entertaining racing and not take any risks.

“The taking of a risk implies that there will be times when it doesn't work. I certainly don't think it should be encouraged, I don’t think you should try t🐎o get them to barge into each other.

“You could definitely argue that Max knew he was o♑n the outside and knew he was in a compromised position🔯 and he could have backed out of it. 

“He didn’t. He chose to hug the outside and leave what he thought wa🃏s enough roo💎m for George. But that is not an exact science. 

“They are very good drivers but you can’t be sure every time that it’𝓡🐷s always going to work.”