Max Verstappen has explained why he kicked a British newspaper journalist out of his press conference in Japan, as his Red Bull Formula 1 team is keen to iron out differences over the incident.

In his session on Thursday, Verstappen expelled a journalist who at the 2025 Abu Dhabi finale asked if he regretted his angry collision with George Russell in Barcelona in June of that year.

This resulted in a 10s penalty for the Dutchman at the Spanish Grand Prix, costing him more points than the two with which he finished behind world champion Lando Norris.

The question prompted an angry response from Verstappen, who at the time said losing the title was due to a combination of factors, and Suzuka was the first time he had seen the journalist in person since then.

Thus, when explaining the incident to Viaplay, Verstappen said that it was not the question itself, but the way in which it was asked that bothered him, feeling that the reporter was smiling disrespectfully while he answered.

“That particular question, I answer it like 20 times with different people, so it’s not about the question, but after the final race, when you ask that and laugh in my face while doing it, it’s clear that it’s done with malicious intent.

“It shows a huge lack of respect. When you’re not respectful to me, then I don’t need to be respectful to you. That’s how life works. To me it’s not right.”

“I get asked a lot of questions,” he added, “a lot of stupid questions too, and I answer them. That’s fine. That’s part of F1. But in this particular case it was clearly done with malicious intent. To me, it was very clear that it was done in a disrespectful way.”

The reporter in question, Giles Richards of The Guardian, shared his side of the story, in which he suspects Verstappen misinterpreted his body language.

It is understood that Red Bull also took issue with Verstappen’s act as well as the four-time world champion’s interpretation, and has met separately with him and Richards.

Red Bull is understood to be keen to smooth things over in the coming days or weeks so that all parties can turn the page on the episode, although Verstappen said the time to talk to Richards is “not now” as the Austrian team has other problems following a dismal qualifying at Suzuka.

But internally, the expectation is that the incident will be cleared up before the Miami Grand Prix in May and that Thursday’s incident will not be repeated in future media sessions.

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– The Motorsport.com team