Jolyon Palmer thinks George Russell’s reaction to his crash with Valtteri Bottas at Imola was to “deflect attention” from his own mistake.

The duo, who were Mercedes team-mates at last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix, wiped each other out in a high-speed collision on lap 32 of this season’s second race while Russell was trying to overtake Bottas.

After their badly-damaged cars came to a standstill, a clearly furious Russell approached Bottas, who remained in the Mercedes, and after being shown the middle finger by the Finn, angrily slapped him across the helmet.

In media interviews after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Russell laid the blame squarely at Bottas’ door for the incident, saying he had “asked him if he was trying to kill us both”.