George Russell kept his win in the Canadian Grand Prix after the stewards rejected a Red Bull protest against the Mercedes driver.
Russell beat Max Verstappen to victory in Sunday’s race to record Mercedes’ first win of the season.
But two hours after the chequered flag had dropped, it emerged Red Bull had challenged the result by lodging two protests about the Brit’s driving behind the late-race Safety Car.
Red Bull alleged that Russell had broken the regulations by both driving erratically in front of Verstappen and committed unsportsmanlike conduct by, in their view, attempting to get his rival penalised.
However, after summoning drivers and representatives from both teams and reviewing data and video evidence during the course of their investigation on Sunday evening, the Montreal stewards ultimately threw Red Bull’s case out almost six hours after Russell had taken the chequered flag.
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Red Bull launched a protest after the Canadian GP claiming George Russell allegedly drove erratically in front of Max Verstappen behind the Safety Car
In the document confirming their decision, the stewards said: “We accept the driver of Car 63’s explanation of the incident and we are satisfied that the driver of Car 63 did not drive erratically by braking where he did or to the extent he did.
“We are not satisfied that by simply reporting to his team that Car 1 had overtaken that he engaged in unsportsmanlike conduct.
“Even though the protest did not allege it, we are also satisfied that by braking where and when he did and to the extent he did, the driver of Car 63 did not engage in unsportsmanlike conduct.”
The protest was the latest twist in a contentious series of events involving Verstappen and Russell.
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George Russell takes a dig at Max Verstappen after beating him to take pole in Montreal.
The Red Bull driver was penalised for causing a collision with Russell at the previous round of the 2025 season in Spain, with the incident earning Verstappen three penalty points that left him on the brink of a race ban in Canada, and will continue to do at the next round in Austria before some points drop off licence.
After beating Verstappen to pole on Saturday in Montreal, Russell suggested he had an advantage over his rival due to the penalty points situation.
Verstappen said he was “pi**ed off” at “childish” comment on his situation shortly after in a post-qualifying press conference.
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Max Verstappen was quick to shut down a question asked to him about his penalty points this season.
The pair also engaged in an extraordinary war of words at last year’s season finale following Verstappen being penalised for an incident involving Russell at the preceding round in Qatar.
Red Bull launched a protest against Russell earlier this season in Miami after the Brit had finished a place ahead of Verstappen in third at the Miami Grand Prix. The allegation that Russell had failed to sufficiently slow under yellow flags was dismissed.
Horner explains Red Bull protest
Speaking to the written media after news of their protests had become public, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “Two protests that we’ve put to the stewards, that we’ve asked them to have a look at.
“Firstly, relating to the erratic driving behind the Safety Car, where George very heavily braked, obviously looking in his mirror for Max.
“Then the second one is very clearly the distance that was left behind the Safety Car that was well in excess, I think at least three times in excess, of the permitted distance.
“It’s €2,000 per protest, and we were surprised that they weren’t noted and sent to the stewards, so therefore you have the right as a competitor to do that, and that’s what we’ve chosen to do.”
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Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli reflect on their first and third place finishes respectively
There was no specific mention in the stewards’ document of an allegation of Russell leaving too big a gap to the Safety Car.
Verstappen had said over Red Bull team radio on lap 68 that “George suddenly just aggressively braked”, while Russell said the Dutchman “just overtook me under the Safety Car”.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 afterwards, Verstappen had said: “I think we were both trying to say to the Safety Car to speed up because he was only going 120kph, but I think maybe it was doing that to give a bit more time to maybe get a race lap in.
“So George was trying to speed up to the Safety Car and I was trying to do the same. Once, he tried to speed up to the Safety Car he backed out and it caused a bit of confusion.”
Next up for the 2025 Formula 1 season is a return to Europe for the Austrian Grand Prix, which is live on Sky Sports F1 from June 27-29. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime.
