Red Bull have had their protest of George Russell rejected by the Stewards following the Miami Grand Prix, resulting in the Mercedes driver keeping his podium finish ahead of fourth-placed Max Verstappen.
The Milton Keynes outfit submitted a protest earlier alleging that Russell had failed to slow under yellow flags, which if successful could have led to a penalty that would have promoted the Dutchman to P3 as he crossed the line 2.3s behind the Mercedes.
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When Ollie Bearman’s Haas suffered a likely engine failure and became stranded on track, Russell elected to pit for fresh tyres under the beneficial conditions brought about by the Virtual Safety Car, and he ultimately returned to the track ahead of Verstappen in third.
Later on, when Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto pulled off the road with power unit problems, another Virtual Safety Car was deployed with Verstappen – still behind Russell – asking his team to «check if George lifted, it was yellow».
Russell narrowly finished ahead of Verstappen in Miami
Red Bull subsequently launched a protest into the Briton, claiming he failed to slow under yellow flags, following the race but, after the Stewards met with representatives from both teams, they concluded that the matter should be rejected.
Christian Horner, Team Principal of Red Bull, told media prior to the outcome confirmation: «We felt that Russell has done something that is in breach of the regs as they are written, so that’s why we put a protest in today.
«More than anything, you want clarity. The regulations say there should be a reduction in speed. It doesn’t talk about a lift, it talks about a reduction in speed.
«We very clearly did that, and that is why Max flagged it immediately from what he saw within the cockpit.»
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The document explaining the Stewards’ decision outlined that Red Bull accepted Russell did lift the throttle, but believed this did not slow him down enough and therefore went against the regulations.
It added that there is no specific wording around whether reducing speed in a yellow flag zone means the «absolute speed» or «the speed relative to the regular racing speed» in that specific part of the track.
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They concluded that Car 63 was «considerably slower than the regular racing speed» when the yellow flag was shown, rejecting the protest and labelling it as «not founded».
The outcome means that Verstappen stays in P4 for the Miami Grand Prix and is just six points ahead of Russell in the Drivers’ Standings.
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