Russell and Bottas at last give us unfiltered malice

IThe Finn was winded, but what hurt more was his loosening grip on his Mercedes future

t was a level of raw aggravation seldom seen in modern Formula One, a scene reflecting the collision of one driver’s wounded pride with the restless ambition of his soon-to-be usurper.

When Valtteri Bottas and George Russell speared into each other at 190 mph heading towards Tamburello corner, the same stretch of Imola asphalt where Ayrton Senna had lost his life 27 years before, it seemed initially as if the drivers were concerned only for each other’s welfare.

Instead, when Russell strode over to Bottas’s smouldering Mercedes, the Finn raised his middle finger, provoking the young Englishman to slap him sarcastically on the head. Amid all the sweetness and light in the paddock, here at last was some unfiltered malice.

In this one image, we saw the vexed decisions awaiting Mercedes. Come next year, Bottas is almost certain to be replaced by the 23-year-old Russell. But Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, is keen for any such succession to be amicable. After all, he used to manage Bottas, while he has known Russell since receiving a letter from a teenage talent pleading for a break. This altercation between the pair was a throwback to the problems he had in prising Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg apart.

Bottas’s single-finger salute at Russell could only be interpreted as the peevish reaction of a beaten man. In his fifth year in Hamilton’s shadow, he delivered an Imola performance so inadequate that he was about to be overtaken by Russell in a Williams. This was an indignity too far. As Bottas defended his line, Russell jinked right, his right-rear tyre veering on to the grass and snapping his car into his rival’s at almost maximum speed, forcing the first red flag of a grand prix at Imola since Senna was killed.

A race stoppage in this corner of Italian countryside evoked traumatic memories. But for the halo constructed around Bottas’s cockpit, Russell’s flying tyre would in all likelihood have connected directly with his skull.

Bottas (below) was winded by the impact, but what hurt more was his loosening grip on his Mercedes future. After two rounds of 23, his prospects look cooked.

Increasingly, he is little more than a patsy in Hamilton’s tilt at a record eighth world title. On a day when Hamilton made a rare mistake, sliding into a gravel trap and losing a lap’s worth of time, Bottas’s crash brought the red flag that enabled his team-mate not merely to un-lap himself, but to fight back to second, protecting his championship lead.

Then again, he is not the only driver to be eclipsed within his own team. Where Max Verstappen surged to victory, his team-mate, Sergio Perez, could finish only 11th. This was a day to demonstrate just how far Verstappen and Hamilton soar above the competition. Where Verstappen controlled the race beautifully, the champion performed a miraculous escape. Evidently, their duel in the Bahrain desert was not some false dawn. Theirs is a rivalry to last the course in 2021, to the chagrin of their team-mates but to the immeasurable benefit of their sport.