Verstappen and Russell crossed swords during an extraordinary final five laps after a late safety car.
Until then, Verstappen had been on course for a strong third place, after challenging the McLarens on a three-stop strategy, compared to their two.
When the safety car was deployed, all the leaders – and most of the rest of the field – pitted for fresh soft tyres. But because of their three-stop strategy, Red Bull’s choices were limited.
They had to choose between leaving Verstappen out on his soft tyres, on which he had done eight racing laps; or pitting, for either another set of softs that had done one qualifying lap and the in- and out-laps, some practice starts, and the laps to the grid, or a new set of the hard-compound…