George Russell can finally celebrate his victory at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix after an appeal by Red Bull was thrown out by race stewards –five and a half hours after chequered flag.
The Mercedes driver has sprayed the champagne and collected his winners’ trophy only to later learn his first win of the year was under threat as Red Bull lodged two complaints with FIA stewards, with Max Verstappen having crossed the line in second place.
The appeals related to Russell’s behaviour behind a late safety car, brought out after Lando Norris had crashed into McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, with Red Bull team principal Christan Horner confirming it was claiming Russell had braked erratically and had also dropped well behind the 10 car lengths behind the safety car.
However, after both Verstappen and Russell spent approximately 45 minutes in the stewards room, the decision was eventually announced at 21:05 local time.
“Protest lodged by Oracle Red Bull Racing against Car 63 for allegedly driving erratically under Safety Car and displaying unsportsmanlike behaviour by complaining that Car 1 had overtaken under Safety Car conditions. Stewards’ Decision: The Protest is rejected as it is not founded,” the document began.
Red Bull made seven claims, including that Russell had shown “unsportsmanlike” behaviour in claiming Verstappen had overtaken him under safety car conditions.
Mercedes, represented in the meeting by Russell, Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows and trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, successfully argued against those claims, with the stewards confirming: “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 appeal was therefore rejected as it was not founded, and Russell kept his race win as a result.
