George Russell has hit out at Red Bull for their decision to protest against his calling it a "waste of everybody's time". The Mercedes driver revealed that , which saw Red Bull's complaints about rejected, resulted in Mercedes staff missing their flights home.

Russell secured Mercedes' first victory of the year as the race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ended under the safety car, between Lando Norris and his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri with just four laps remaining. Red Bull's Max Verstappen crossed the line in second place. Team Principal Christian Horner then decided to challenge Russell's victory by claiming the Brit had been driving "erratically" behind the safety car by braking "unnecessarily" on the back straight between turns 12 and 13, causing Verstappen to briefly overtake him during the safety car period.

Red Bull accused Russell of showing "unsportsmanlike intent" by voicing his complaints over the team radio towards Verstappen had passed him, suggesting that the Mercedes star was trying to catch out the four-time world champion.

It wasn't until six hours after the chequered flag had been waved in Canada that Russell could finally revel in his fourth F1 victory, following the outcome of the appeal. And the 27-year-old was clearly frustrated with Red Bull's actions when speaking to Sky Sports at the New York premiere of the F1 film on Monday.

"Max [Verstappen] didn't know there was a protest even going on," he said. "So I don't know what was going on, what they were thinking. I'm glad nothing happened one way or another. It was just a bit of a waste of everybody's time. Shov [Andrew Shovlin] and Ron [Meadows] who work with the team both missed their flights last night so it was just a bit of a faff for everybody. But it's over now. Eyes forward."

Shovlin serves as the engineering director for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, while Ron Meadows holds the position of sporting director, representing them in discussions with the FIA and communicating with race control during race weekends.

Russell's remarks follow Red Bull team principal Horner's defence of their decision to lodge a protest, having insisted on Tuesday that he had no regrets about taking the matter to the stewards.

He said: "No, absolutely not. It's a team's right to do so. We saw something that we didn't think was quite right and you have the ability to put it in front of the stewards. That's what we chose to do."

However, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff criticised the move, stating: "First of all, it took team Red Bull Racing two hours before they launched the protest, so that was in their doing. It's so petty and so small. They come up with some weird clauses, what they call clauses. I guess the FIA needs to look at that because it's so far-fetched it was rejected.

"You know, you race, you win and you lose on track. That was a fair victory for us, like so many they had in the past. And it's just embarrassing."