George Russell has defended Mercedes’ decision to order him to give second place back to Kimi Antonelli during the closing stages of the Dutch Grand Prix, insisting it was the “right decision”. The two Mercedes drivers are both involved in the 2026 Formula 1 title fight, but Russell argued that Antonelli had been ahead before a late Virtual Safety Car disrupted the strategic order.
It is not every day that a team issues an instruction between two drivers who are both competing for the championship. Mercedes did exactly that at Zandvoort, immediately generating speculation over whether Toto Wolff’s team was beginning to favour championship leader Kimi Antonelli after George Russell was told to surrender second place.
George Russell explains Mercedes team order for Kimi Antonelli
Russell himself moved quickly to play down that interpretation. The British driver explained that the situation developed naturally because the two Mercedes cars were on different strategies and the team also had to protect its podium places from Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who were closing quickly on fresher tyres.
Mercedes therefore wanted to avoid Russell and Antonelli losing valuable time fighting each other while the two Ferraris approached from behind.
The decisive moment came with only a handful of laps remaining, when a Virtual Safety Car was triggered after Esteban Ocon stopped his Haas at the side of the circuit. Among the leading drivers, Russell was the only one apart from race leader Lando Norris to remain on track.
That promoted Russell into second place, but the Mercedes driver knew that once racing resumed he would have the sister W17 and both Ferraris behind him. Antonelli, Hamilton and Leclerc were all running soft tyres that were significantly fresher than Russell’s hard compound, which was already approaching the end of its useful life.
Kimi Antonelli closes on Russell with fresher tyres
Russell understood that he would have to defend aggressively, but he offered little resistance when Mercedes instructed him to allow Kimi Antonelli through once his team-mate had caught him.
Even though the position swap was completed with minimal time loss, Russell still had to defend hard against Hamilton during the final laps. The Mercedes driver ultimately held on to third place, helped in part by another brief Virtual Safety Car caused by contact between the two Williams cars of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Russell therefore completed the podium behind Lando Norris and Antonelli, preserving a valuable result for Mercedes despite the tyre disadvantage he faced during the final phase of the race.
Russell: ‘Kimi deserved to finish second’
After the race, Russell made clear that he understood the reasoning behind Mercedes’ call and refused to criticise the team. Instead, he publicly defended the decision.
“We were on different strategies and the Ferraris were coming quickly. Then Kimi was ahead of me before the Virtual Safety Car, so it was the right decision,” George Russell told Sky Sport F1.
“Clearly, at that moment I would have liked to fight, but he deserved to finish second and third place was the right result for me today.”
The decision nevertheless had an important championship consequence. By finishing second ahead of Russell, Antonelli increased his advantage over his Mercedes team-mate to 59 points in the Formula 1 driver standings.
Mercedes team order was about strategy rather than title preference
For Russell, however, the circumstances of the Dutch Grand Prix explain why the team order should not necessarily be interpreted as Mercedes choosing one title contender over the other. Antonelli had been running ahead before making the extra stop under the Virtual Safety Car, while his fresher tyres also made him the stronger Mercedes driver for the final laps.
The arrival of Hamilton and Leclerc added another strategic consideration. Fighting Antonelli could have cost both Mercedes drivers time and potentially exposed Russell’s podium position to Ferrari.
Instead, Mercedes restored the order that had existed before the late pit-stop sequence, allowing Antonelli to secure second while Russell successfully defended third. The move increased the championship gap between the pair, but Russell’s post-race reaction made his position clear: given the circumstances at Zandvoort, he believes Mercedes made the correct call.
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