A defiant George Russell rejected Max Verstappen’s criticisms after the pair collided at the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint race.

“I was very surprised by how angry he was,” Russell said.

“I am not just going to wave him by because he’s Max Verstappen in a Red Bull. I am here to fight and win,” added the Englishman.

Verstappen accused Russell of lacking “common sense”.

“They are off the pace and to take that much risk it is not very rewarding because I will get him anyway in the next few laps,” Verstappen said.

“The potential to damage your car as well. Not only my car – I had a hole in my sidepod – but he could get a puncture and his race is over as well.

“I thought I was fair. I gave him enough space. But I think, apparently, it’s hard to not hit that Red Bull car, I guess. For them [Mercedes drivers].

“Clearly he locked up. But he tells me: ‘Yeah, I got cold tyres.’ We all have cold tyres, it is not an excuse.

“I don’t like it when someone has that reaction – ‘I didn’t do anything wrong’ – and walks off.

“It is what it is. It’s two views, it’s my view and it’s his view. Whatever.”

Verstappen also said that he considered the move reflected Russell’s inexperience. Both drivers are 25, but Russell made his debut in F1 in 2019, whereas Verstappen first raced in the top category in 2015.

“[In his position] I would try to fight, but not run into him,” Verstappen said. “Maybe it is something you learn over time. I had my moments when I just started in F1 where you make some silly mistakes or lock-ups and damage and maybe it is part of the learning curve.”

Russell argued he was in a position to try a legitimate overtake and that, as Verstappen was on the outside going into the corner on a street track surrounded by walls, the Dutchman was the one taking the risk.

Russell said that Verstappen had used the F-word a number of times. The Red Bull driver also insulted the Briton as he walked away.

“I was quite surprised,” Russell said. “I thought he was coming over to say: ‘Good battle.’

“I was on the inside and the position was already lost from him and I was really quite surprised he was still trying to hold it on the outside.

“Ever since we were eight years old, if you are on the inside at the apex of a corner, it’s your corner, and if you try to hold it on the outside, you are taking the risk. The move was on – that’s about it, really.”

The incident enlivened a ‘sprint’ race that contained little other incident.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez overtook Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to win after starting second and Fernando Alonso took advantage of Lewis Hamilton failing to pass the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz at a restart after an early safety car to take fifth place, but otherwise positions among the top eight cars were static during the race.

It was the first weekend of a revised format for the sprint which separates out events on Saturday from the main race on Sunday.

For the last two seasons since its introduction, the result of the sprint set the starting positions for the grand prix on Sunday.

Now, following a rule change finalised earlier this week, Friday’s qualifying sets the grand prix starting order and a new qualifying has been introduced on Saturday to decide the grid for the sprint.

Verstappen, who has always been critical of the sprint format, made it clear he was not in favour of the changes.

“Just scrap the whole thing,” he said. “It is important to go back to what we have and make sure every team can fight for a win. And [not try] to implement all this artificial excitement.

“I got bored in today’s qualifying. I like to have one qualifying where you put everything in it and that was yesterday, which I enjoyed. And then you had to do it again today. I was like: ‘My god, another qualifying!’ I just don’t really enjoy that.”

Other drivers were more positive while reflecting their belief that it could be improved further.

Leclerc, who also took pole for the main grand prix, said: “I don’t hate this format. It’s better than last year’s sprint format.

“I wouldn’t want this to be the standard format in the future. It’s fine if we have three, four races like that in a year.

“It puts a lot more pressure on the drivers because basically there’s only one session where you can do a mistake, which is first practice. After that, every lap you do is really important. And you also have a lot less preparation so the preparation for the race beforehand at the simulator is extremely important.”

Alonso said: “It is OK. I like the idea of less practice and the fans will like for sure more action.

“The only open point is this morning the qualifying felt, I don’t know, a little bit repetitive of what we had yesterday, more or less the same cars went through Q1 and Q2, only Alex (Albon) and George instead of (Yuki) Tsunoda and some others.

“We can maybe spice up more things a little bit the qualifying this morning but then the teams will never agree to spice up.”

Hamilton said: “I thought it was cool. I liked qualifying. I generally like the format, but there is a lot of time wasted on the weekend and I think we could do it in a shorter amount of days.”

Other drivers also said the format could still be improved.

Russell said: “[The drivers] were open to change. I am not against it. It would be nice if the teams were allowed to make a set-up change on Friday. It feels a shame all these engineers are here and locked in.

“From the drivers’ perspective, it’s quite fun, more competitive laps. I just hope it doesn’t take too much away from Sunday.”

Leclerc said he felt the rule requiring drivers to use only new soft tyres in the final part of the sprint qualifying session should be changed. This prevented McLaren’s Lando Norris from running in the final session on Saturday because his team made a strategic decision to use all his soft tyres on Friday.

‘We are still lacking some pace’ – Leclerc

Leclerc will start the main grand prix from pole on Sunday, this time with Verstappen alongside him on the front row rather than Perez, but the sprint offered him little hope that he will be any better able to hold off the Red Bulls.

Leclerc admitted he had put up little fight against Perez because the Red Bull was so much faster on the straight. He said he tried to hang on within a second of the Red Bull as long as he could to enable him to use the DRS overtaking aid to defend against Verstappen but he eventually ran out of tyre life and began to drop back.

He admitted that trying to beat the Red Bulls on Sunday was “going to be tricky for sure”.

“We are still lacking some pace in the race and it’s been the case since quite a bit,” Leclerc said. “We are not yet at the level of Red Bull.”

The win looks set to be a contest between Verstappen and Perez, whose sprint win reduced his deficit in the championship to Verstappen to 13 points.