George Russell has been accused of “trying to throw” Max Verstappen “under the bus” with his actions behind the Safety Car at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Verstappen went into round 10 of the F1 2025 season one penalty point away from a race ban, having seen his tally increase to 11 in a 12-month rolling period for his collision with Russell at the previous race in Spain.

From Max Verstappen in Spain to George Russell in Canada…

Seemingly backing off to give a position to Russell at the Barcelona circuit after an earlier incident, Verstappen sped back up into Turn 5 and blocked Russell from turning in, causing contact between the two cars in the process.

The Mercedes driver called his Red Bull rival’s antics “very deliberate”, while Verstappen conceded on the Monday morning that his actions were “not right”, but he never apologised to Russell.

The Spanish GP stewards hit Verstappen with a costly 10-second time penalty and three penalty points as a consequence. That brought his tally to 11, one away from a race ban.

Verstappen and Russell were at it again at the very next race, the Canadian Grand Prix, where they ran 1-2 in the closing stages of the Grand Prix behind the Safety Car that had been deployed after Lando Norris rear-ended Oscar Piastri.

Analysis: Canadian Grand Prix

👉 Canadian GP conclusions: Lando’s silver lining, Ferrari sack fears, key Russell change

👉 Canadian GP driver ratings: George Russell isn’t the only perfect racer

Leading the race, Russell hit the brakes, a normal manoeuvre to maintain temperatures behind the Safety Car, and Verstappen was seemingly caught out by the suddenness of the braking and sailed past the Mercedes driver.

Russell was quickly on the radio to report that the Dutch driver had overtaken him under Safety Car conditions, while Verstappen got onto his race engineer to point out the sudden braking.

The stewards weren’t fazed by the incident, but Red Bull later lodged a protest over what they perceived to be Russell’s “unsportsmanlike behaviour” with Christian Horner questioning the Briton’s “objective” given his post-qualifying jab about Verstappen’s penalty points.

But while the protest was not upheld by the stewards, Red Bull simulator and development driver Van Buren believes Russell’s actions were questionable at best.

“I’m somewhat irritated by it, to put it mildly, in front of the camera. George has a certain distance to the Safety Car that he needs to maintain,” he told Viaplay.

“Talking about trying to throw someone under the bus.

“He’s looking in his right mirror, and Max is driving alongside. He’s warming up his tyres, and as soon as he thinks, ‘If I brake now, Max will pass me’, he does it.

“Then he goes on the radio to say something. And what he forgets in that process is that he ends up more than ten car lengths behind the Safety Car, because he braked. So guys, what are we even doing?”

Horner later revealed Red Bull actually spoke with the FIA ahead of the Grand Prix as they expected that rivals would play games with Verstappen in an attempt to get the reigning World Champion banned.

“It’s inevitable that there was going to be some potential gamesmanship,” said Horner.

“It’s something that we raised after the driver’s briefing with the Race Director [Rui Marques] just so that they were mindful of it as well because it’s clear that that kind of stuff goes on.

“But Max, I thought he’s been squeaky clean all weekend and drove a very good race.”

Read next: Hamilton’s cryptic statement as Ferrari driver wishes ‘I could tell you what’s happening’