Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has revealed that Max Verstappen apologised for his collision with George Russell in the Spanish Grand Prix debrief room. The race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya exploded into controversy during the final laps when Verstappen appeared to ram into the side of Russell's Mercedes deliberately.

Charles Leclerc passed the reigning world champion to move down to P4 after pitting for a set of hard tyres during a late safety car. Verstappen then thwarted Russell's attempts to overtake at Turn 1, but Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase informed the former to hand the place back. The 27-year-old was audibly angered and, despite initially appearing to concede his position, appeared to suddenly swing into Russell to prevent the move.

He was on the end of scathing criticism for the incredible moment of madness and later received three penalty points following a 10-second time penalty as his punishment.

It catapulted the Dutchman down from a potential podium to P10, costing him and Red Bull significant points in both championships.

Verstappen didn't issue a formal apology in public after the race, although he wrote on social media that the move "should not have happened".

However, in his own post reviewing the weekend's events, Horner claimed that his star driver did apologise for his apparent reckless actions behind closed doors.

"Spain closes out the triple-header, and we leave Barcelona frustrated that we didn't take more from the race," Horner wrote on Instagram.

"As a team, we attacked on the three-stop, which was the better strategy, and it was only the safety car which had us over. We would never have been as close to Lando if it wasn't for the three-stopper.

"The safety car came out at the worst possible time for our strategy; we had the choice to stay out on older tyres or take the gamble with a new set of hard tyres.

"Hindsight is always 20/20, but we made the best decision at the time with the information we had.

"The result that followed was frustrating as it was looking to be an easy podium for Max and good championship points.

"Max apologised in the debrief for his incident with Russell. The SC also hurt Yuki's race.

"He would've been very close if not in the points; otherwise, if you look at the trajectory he was on.

"But that's racing. It can turn in a split second. It is one of the reasons we are all so captivated and in love with this sport.

"It was a tough weekend, but we will be busy working hard over the next weeks to make some set-up improvements to the car and come back strong in Montreal."