George Russell has escaped punishment after protested his victory at the . That means the Brit keeps his win secured in Montreal on Sunday from pole position, with forced to settle for second place.

That was the order in which they finished on track, behind the safety car after crashed late on into team-mate . But the result was in doubt for more than five hours after the chequered flag flew after .

Verstappen had complained over the radio that was dropping too far behind the safety car and, at one point, said he had "aggressively braked". Red Bull made the complaints official and both drivers were called to a meeting with the stewards after the podium celebrations.

The stewards found the protest to be admissible and so a full hearing took place. In it, Red Bull representatives claimed that Russell had braked hard and unnecessarily on the back straight which led to Verstappen inadvertently overtaking behind the safety car.

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They also accused the Brit of "displaying unsportsmanlike intent" by complaining over the radio that Verstappen had overtaking him, "knowing that it would be overheard by race control and in the hope that Verstappen would be investigated".

In Russell's defence, argued that regular braking is normal behind the safety car to maintain temperatures, to make sure the car was prepared in case racing resumed. They also said that what their driver had said over the radio was "nothing more than factual".

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Mercedes also said Verstappen should have been ready to anticipate Russell's braking and insisted that the race leader had not tried to get his rival in trouble through his comments over the radio.

Explaining their decision to dismiss the protest, the stewards said: "We accept the driver of Car 63 [Russell]'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."

As a result, Red Bull's protest was rejected because it was deemed to be "not founded". So Russell keeps his first victory of 2025 while Verstappen had to settle for second, with Kimi Antonelli rounding off the top three with his first podium on a red-letter day for Mercedes.