The FIA stewards have just rejected the protest lodged by Red Bull Racing against winner George Russell – and thus against the outcome of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal – after lengthy deliberation. Max Verstappen‘s team believed that Russell deliberately braked during the final phase of the race, under the safety car, to provoke a penalty for Max Verstappen. The stewards ultimately deemed the incident not worthy of sanction.
Russell immediately came on the team radio after his notable braking action to point out to the stewards that Verstappen, with his RB21, momentarily overtook him, which is not allowed. Verstappen and his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase immediately spoke of a deliberate action by the British Mercedes driver. “Don’t fall for his games,” the latter advised.
Lately, Russell and Verstappen have been getting along less well, with the collision between the two drivers during the GP of Spain two weeks ago being the provisional low point.
Incidentally, the submission of the protest by Red Bull was not initiated by Verstappen, as team boss Christian Horner pointed out when asked. “Max was not aware of this. However, as a team, we have the right to lodge a protest, which costs two thousand euros per protest. We were surprised that the incident was not presented to the stewards,” said Horner. A second protest by Red Bull against Russell for not maintaining sufficient distance from the safety car was also withdrawn by the team.
With the rejection of the other protest, Russell therefore remains the winner of the GP of Canada, ahead of Max Verstappen and Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli. Incidentally, Verstappen was already on the plane home when the outcome of the protest was announced.
Time Penalty for Norris Has No Consequences
Incidentally, Lando Norris received a five-second time penalty from the stewards for his collision with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, also in the final phase of the race. Norris dropped out, so the penalty has no further harmful consequences for him. Other drivers (Kimi Antonelli, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Oliver Bearman, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, and Esteban Ocon) received warnings for minor infractions.
