Max Verstappen reignited his rivalry with Mercedes by hitting out at ‘slow’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell after a bizarre clash in practice which saw the Red Bull driver attempt to overtake both in the pit-lane.

An impatient Verstappen was seen weaving past rivals in the narrow pit-lane during practice at the Abu Dhabi circuit.

While plenty were left unimpressed by Verstappen’s antics, the Dutchman turned the focus around onto Hamilton and Russell who he felt were ‘silly’ in trying to ‘squeeze’ him into the wall.

‘They have to move,’ Verstappen moaned.

‘They’re all driving slow and I want to go out because we’re all limited on time and they just keep driving in the middle. And when I tried to pass, they tried to squeezed me in the wall, so a bit silly.’

Max Verstappen was furious with Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell

The Dutchman felt his ‘slow’ rivals were trying to ‘squeeze’ him into the wall in the pit-lane

It was a frustrating second practice for Verstappen, with Ferrari top of the timings sheet at the end.

His Red Bull, as well as that of team-mate Sergio Perez, showed an alarming lack of balance during the session.

‘From our side, the balance is very off,’ Verstappen said.

‘A lot of understeer, a lot of jumping – so definitely a few things to figure out for tomorrow.

‘I didn’t expect it to be so far off, and also that is a bit of a question mark for us.

‘I mean, we are still P3, it’s not too bad, but balance-wise I think it can be a lot better. So, we will try and have a look what happened there.’

Max Verstappen squeezes past George Russell in the pit lane 😳

It's a big rush to get laps in before the end of FP2 ⏰ pic.twitter.com/HgXfN2NDOA

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) November 24, 2023

Hamilton (right) was open to becoming Verstappen’s (left) team-mate before penning his bumper new £50m-a-year Mercedes deal, Mail Sport sensationally revealed this week

Verstappen’s row with Mercedes comes just a day after he was quizzed on Mail Sport’s exclusive story that Hamilton was open to joining forces with him before he inked his new deal with the Silver Arrows.

Elsewhere in practice, which was red-flagged on two occasions, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc edged out Lando Norris.

A combined 30-minute delay wiped out half of the one-hour session after Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg both crashed out.

Leclerc saw off Norris by just 0.043 seconds, with Verstappen third, 0.173 sec off the pace. Russell and Hamilton finished sixth and eighth respectively for Mercedes.