Why Verstappen’s claim Russell dropped too far behind the Safety Car was wrong

Max Verstappen repeatedly accused George Russell of breaking the rules by dropping too far behind the Safety Car during the closing stages of yesterday’s race.

Russell was penalised for that very infraction at the Qatar Grand Prix last year. He received a five-second time penalty, and had he incurred the same on Sunday, Verstappen would have won the race.

But according to the stewards, Verstappen’s claims did not form part of Red Bull’s attempt to overturn Russell’s victory by bringing a protest against him. The reason is clear: Verstappen was mistaken. Russell may have dropped more than 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car but he was permitted to by the regulations.

Verstappen repeatedly accused Russell of falling too far behind the Safety Car over the final laps of the race. He first did so after the incident in which Russell slowed and Verstappen briefly overtook him, which formed the basis of Red Bull’s subsequent protest.

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Russell’s onboard camera showed at least two occasions when he dropped back from the Safety Car then caught up again. On both occasions he alerted Mercedes to the fact his delta time had changed because the sector they were driving through was under yellow flags.

As the Safety Car period was triggered in response to Lando Norris crashing on the pit straight, race control chose to send the pack through the pit lane and avoid the accident scene. Therefore they did not pass through any yellow flags for the incident until they reached the pit lane exit.

This was where Russell slowed down and the gap between him and the Safety Car opened up, prompting the complaints from Verstappen. Russell reassured his team he was following the requirement to slow down because of the yellow flags:

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The regulation Russell was complying with was introduced in 2023. It states that “any driver passing through a double waved yellow flag marshalling sector during a Safety Car […] must stay above the minimum time set by the FIA ECU in each marshalling sector concerned.”

The same yellow flag caused a near-miss further behind the race leaders. When Esteban Ocon realised he was entering a double yellow flag zone he braked so hard Carlos Sainz Jnr went off in order to avoid hitting the Haas. The stewards cleared Ocon of erratic driving, noting he “explained that he braked where he did because he heard an audible warning of a double yellow zone and a double yellow delta warning appeared on his wheel” and “positioning data confirmed that the area between turns one and two was a double yellow sector.”

Whether or not Verstappen knew Russell was complying with the delta time rule, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase did not correct him. This may have been because Red Bull would have nothing to gain from broadcasting a message saying a rival was complying with the rules, or perhaps it was in order to avoid further antagonising Verstappen.

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