Russell keeps Canadian GP win after Red Bull protest rejected

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.

• Canadian GP result | F1 championship standings
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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.

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."

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."

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."

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