Red Bull boss Christian Horner has criticised world champion turned pundit Nico Rosberg for his claim that Max Verstappen should have been disqualified.

While the usual team of talking heads ask questions - and usually answer them - courtesy of feeds through their ear pieces, guest pundits like world champions Rosberg and Jacques Villeneuve opt for the 'off the cuff', more controversial stuff, confident that their on-track experience grants them a certain amount of leeway.

However, Christian Horner believes that Rosberg crossed a line when he claimed that Verstappen should have been shown the black flag for his Turn 5 clash with George Russell.

"The first one was George's fault because he went in too hot, oversteered out and tapped Max who then had to use the escape road," Rosberg told SkyF1 viewers. "That's not the way to do the pass.

"Red Bull messed up by saying let George pass," he continued. "That really annoyed Max because he knows George rammed him off. In Max's eyes he's like one hundred per cent in the right. 'Why are you telling me to do this, watch this I will show you what he did', slowed down and rammed into him which is even worse. To slow down and ram into another driver is pretty bad.

"That's a very lenient one from my point of view," he said of the 10s penalty. "Remember Sebastian Vettel against Lewis Hamilton in Baku 2017?

"It looked like a very intentional retaliation," he insisted. "Wait for the opponent, go ramming into him, just like you felt the other guy rammed into you at Turn 1.

"That's something which is extremely unacceptable and I think the rules would be a black flag. If you wait for your opponent to bang into him, that's a black flag."

"Nico's quite sensational in the way he commentates, so we'll leave it there," said Horner when told of Rosberg's opinion.

"Yeah, that's his opinion, everyone can have an opinion," added Verstappen.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Pavlo, 06/06/2025 5:30

"Funny how Rosberg and others suggest Max is unprecedented GOAT. According to what I read, Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris, Piastri and Rosberg himself constantly make mistakes.
And Max? Never. Every his collision is an intentional attack on another driver, perfectly calculated and executed action to damage someone’s car and gain a position. I mean if one suggest so, one must admit that this requires skills way above all the others."

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2. Posted by kenji, 03/06/2025 13:40

"I can't seem to make up my mind about Rosberg. Sometimes he makes sense and at other times he makes wild assumptions. The most annoying thing is when he gives Wolff/MB too much deference along with accolades to the GOAT. The reason he does this is obvious....still he's a great improvement on some of the contemporaries sidelined this year."

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3. Posted by JamesD, 03/06/2025 9:53

"I believe it should have been a 10 second stop-go penalty as this is what was applied to Vettel for a similar incident at Baku 2017."

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4. Posted by Anthony, 02/06/2025 16:42

"Rosberg was a welcome addition to the Sky team for this race - very informed and generally sensible comments which went at least some way to compensate for the truly dreadful David Croft.

I think that the penalties (time and points on licence) seem pretty consistent with past penalties and Max has now publicly admitted to being at fault, so it’s time for everyone to move on. "

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5. Posted by Kkiirmki, 02/06/2025 12:06

"Of course Rosberg was fine with only getting a 10 second time penalty after driving in Hamilton at the 2016 Austrian GP."

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6. Posted by Editor, 02/06/2025 10:56

"@ Pavlo

And then there's...

https://www.pitpass.com/80355/It-shouldnt-have-happened-admits-Verstappen"

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7. Posted by Pavlo, 02/06/2025 10:20

"But many thanks to Rosberg, actually. He just highlighted important fact - both collisions were practically the same, the only difference was intention, and one driver voluntarily gave back position (even if shouldn't) and got a penalty, anther was not penalized for "causing a collision" which normally happens.
Now, the only thing Max needed to do is press a radio button and say "oh, these hards are so slippery, I missed the apex", and then he should have got no penalty. Penalty for being honest, is it?"

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8. Posted by Forza Minardi, 02/06/2025 9:12

"Should have been a disqualification. Nothing sensationalist about it. Nico is great in the commentary box - tremendous insight, measured in his thoughts and comments, and corrects Croft's nonsense."

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Horner reacts to "sensational" Rosberg

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