Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko had admitted Max Verstappen’s collision with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix was a “serious misjudgment,” but remains confident the reigning champion will not end up with a race ban.

Frustrated by the way his race was panning out, Verstappen drove into Russell’s car in Spain after he was told by the Red Bull pit wall to cede position to the Mercedes driver.

Although Verstappen refused to talk directly about the incident in post-race interviews, he posted a statement on social media on Monday saying that the move was “not right and shouldn’t have happened”.

Marko, who has long been a close ally of Verstappen at Red Bull, agreed the reigning champion had experienced a lapse of judgement.

“Max then suddenly accelerated again and then all hell broke loose,” Marko told Servus TV. “That was a serious misjudgment.

“He was already at odds with Russell. With incidents and bad decisions, emotions have run high.

“Sleeping on it certainly helped. Everyone goes their own way. When Max is in that mood, it’s better to leave him alone.”

Verstappen was given a 10-second penalty for the collision, dropping him to 10th place in the final race classification, and also received three penalty points on his superlicence from the stewards.

Verstappen now has 11 penalty points in total on his superlicence, meaning another misjudgment at one of the next two rounds would result in 12 in a 12-month period and a race ban.

However, Marko remains confident Verstappen will be able to control any frustration within the cockpit and avoid a race ban.

“The punishment is appropriate,” Marko added. “It won’t happen that he behaves badly in Canada and then doesn’t start in Austria. He’s a racer who knows his limits.”

Marko said the gap between Red Bull and championship leaders McLaren was bigger than expected in Spain, but hopes it will close again at the next round in Canada.

“The whole weekend was sobering for us,” he said. “Basically, we were three tenths behind with a car that was too slow. We thought we were on a par. We saw again that McLaren is vastly superior.

“We hope that our car will be competitive again in Canada. At the moment, Max Verstappen does not have a car with which he can become world champion.

“But only he can cope with it at all at the moment. If everything fits, we’ll be just as fast as McLaren.

“But that’s only every third or fourth race. McLaren is always there. We’re not giving up yet, but it’s going to be difficult.”