George Russell Says Kimi Antonelli ‘Deserved’ to Finish Ahead of Him After Mercedes Team Orders at the Dutch Grand Prix

• George Russell was ordered to let teammate Kimi Antonelli pass for second place in the closing laps of the Dutch Grand Prix
• Russell says Antonelli “deserved” the position after the Mercedes team order, calling his own third-place finish “a fair result”
• Team boss Toto Wolff insists the call was “not a difficult decision” and would have applied in reverse had the positions been swapped

George Russell says championship leader Kimi Antonelli “deserved” to finish ahead of him at the Dutch Grand Prix, backing Mercedes’ decision to order him aside for his teammate in the closing stages at Zandvoort.

Antonelli was running second to race winner Lando Norris with 16 laps to go when Mercedes pitted him for fresh tyres under a virtual safety car, bringing him out third behind Russell. The move extended Antonelli’s championship lead to 59 points over both Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

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The Order That Decided the Podium

It quickly became clear Antonelli did not have the pace to catch Norris for the win, but he closed rapidly on Russell, and overtaking is notoriously difficult at Zandvoort. Mercedes told Russell over the radio to let his teammate through into second, a call that left Russell exposed to Hamilton, who was running fresh tyres behind him with Charles Leclerc in tow.

Russell held off Hamilton with the help of a second virtual safety car period to secure third, but finishing behind Antonelli meant his championship deficit to his teammate grew.

Russell initially questioned the instruction over team radio, asking whether Antonelli had any real chance of catching Norris, before quickly following it. Asked about his thinking afterward, he said: “We’ve always said as a team, when we’re on different strategies, we’re never going to fight and we’re always going to invert, and that’s always just been our sort of rules. And the fact is Kimi was ahead of me before the VSC and he tried something different to protect us as a team. He kind of copy-pasted what the Ferraris did.”

“Could I have kept him behind? Maybe. But equally, it could have been a P5 as well,” Russell added. “So, in the end, he deserved to be P2. I think P3 was a fair result for me.”

Wolff Defends the Call

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the decision was clear-cut from inside the team, no matter how it looked from the outside.

“We had a free stop with Kimi, a team internal free stop, and George was incredibly at the end fighting and also fending off the Ferraris, who were on a much quicker car. Was really, really exceptional,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1. “That looks difficult on the outside but not on the inside. It’s a situation we discussed very often, also today in the morning: we’re not going to lose time fighting with each other and have two Ferraris breathing down our neck.”

“So, it would have been the other way around exactly the same. It plays no role who is ahead in the championship or not, it’s just about protecting the best possible positions,” he continued. “I don’t think Antonelli was anywhere near catching Norris. It was just the safest way in terms of scoring points. You could have played maybe leaving him in overtake mode and then again, you are risking too much, you have two Ferraris all over you.”

Wolff added: “So, it was some tough calls, but they need to be done when you want to fight for the constructors’ and drivers’ championship. This is how we are operating. Both drivers know that. We avoid situations like some other teams where it’s not clearly talked like this. This is harsh times, there’s 2,500 people who work for championships, and it’s not one man’s game. That’s how we operate it the last 15 years.”

Antonelli Feels for His Teammate

Antonelli, who took the lead early by passing Norris at the restart following Max Verstappen’s lap-one crash, could not match the McLaren driver’s pace once both switched to the hard tyre compound at the first round of stops. He thanked Russell for the position but admitted his own strategy had put his teammate at greater risk.

“It was a difficult second half of the race for me, especially in the last stint on the hards, just really struggling. Had little confidence in the car and, yeah, it was not easy,” Antonelli said. “And then obviously we pitted, and also that was a bit tricky. But then also George, I have to thank him because he made my life a lot easier.”

“But I still think probably could have stayed out and gone until the end with the same set because it put us a little bit at risk. Also, I feel we put George at risk with having to let me by and everything,” he continued. “But I still think, at the end of the day, it was a great team execution with how things were, and I think today P2 was the maximum we could have done because the pace of the McLarens, especially in the second half, was just too strong.”

Russell’s Own Radio Concern

Mercedes made the swap call on lap 65 of 72, informing Russell they would invert the cars after Antonelli’s free pit stop under the virtual safety car left him running behind his teammate. Russell’s initial response on the radio was not simply a question about Antonelli’s pace relative to Norris. He also warned the team they risked a “lost double podium” if the move let both Ferraris through while the positions were being sorted out.

Speaking to F1 TV, Wolff described the swap as a simple call once Antonelli had pitted and Russell had not. “Especially before the inverting, Kimi was ahead, he didn’t need to pit, so George ended where he ended, with the threat of the Ferraris obviously. So the switch was the logical consequence,” Wolff said.

Wolff called the weekend “good and tough at times” for Mercedes. “I think today we thought we had the pace to win the race and that ran away when we went onto the hard tyre. We don’t understand why, but when you look at it from the bittersweet side, we finished with a P2 and P3. We outscored Ferrari in points, so that is okay.” He added that Mercedes’ upgrade path remains behind McLaren’s: “It’s a development fight, and at the moment we are a bit stuck. We need to just keep on performing and executing well, because the upgrades are still a little bit away.”

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More F1 Reading

• Lewis Hamilton Vents Ferrari Frustration and Compares Team Radio Response to Mercedes After Dutch Grand Prix
• Max Verstappen Says Zandvoort Crash ‘Could Have Been a Lot Worse’ as His Final Home Race Ends on Lap One
• Lando Norris Says He Needs ‘More Than What I Have Now’ to Fight for the 2026 F1 Title After Back-to-Back Wins
• Max Verstappen’s Red Bull commitment closes the door on F1 exit speculation

Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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