George Russell retains Canadian Grand Prix victory as Red Bull protest is rejected
The Briton also stated that “he braked where he did for two reasons. First to ensure he kept a gap to the Safety Car. Secondly, to keep temperature in his brakes and tyres.” Mercedes also submitted that “what the driver of Car 63 had said over team radio was nothing other than factual.”
FIA Sporting Director Tim Malyon – attending on behalf of the FIA – explained that the incident had been observed by Race Control and “assessed to not warrant being reported to the stewards.”
He also said that “periodic braking under Safety Car is typical and to be expected”, meaning that Race Control “always allows a degree of tolerance with respect to the 10 car length rule recognising that there is a need for a reasonable degree of braking and acceleration.”
After regarding this evidence, the stewards accepted Russell’s explanation of the incident and were satisfied that he “did not drive erratically by braking where he did or to the extent he did”, as well as adding that they did not believe he had engaged in unsportsmanlike conduct by reporting to the team that Verstappen had overtaken.
This resulted in the protest being rejected, meaning that the results of the race remained unchanged and Russell’s victory was confirmed.
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