With around six laps left at Zandvoort on Sunday 23 August, Russell was told over the radio to let his team-mate through into second place. He questioned it, then complied.

Antonelli had been running second to eventual winner Lando Norris when a virtual safety car on lap 56 handed Mercedes a free stop. They pitted the Italian for fresh soft tyres, dropping him behind Russell in third. The team order followed once Antonelli caught his team-mate.

Toto Wolff was unapologetic afterwards.

“That looks difficult on the outside but not on the inside,” Wolff told Sky Sports.

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“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’.”

The team principal was equally direct on whether Antonelli’s championship position played any part.

“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.”

The two-tenths that decided it

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin laid out the technical case for the swap.

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“Kimi dropped behind George after the stop. Now, why did we invert the cars? Well, that was really about saving George race time,” Shovlin told Motorsport.com.

“Kimi had the grip to get through, but if we’d allowed them to race each other, George would have lost time to the Ferraris and the Ferraris would have had more time to attack and try and get through.”

With Antonelli released, Russell was left to hold off Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on older rubber.

“One of the highlights of the race was just seeing how brilliantly George defended against those Ferraris,” Shovlin added.

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Both Ferraris finished within seven seconds of Russell. Neither got past.

Russell: ‘P3 was a fair result’

Russell publicly accepted the call.

“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,” he said.

“Yeah, could I have kept him behind? Maybe. But equally, you know, it could have been a P5 as well. So, in the end, you know, he deserved to be P2. I think P3 was a fair result for me and, yes, a long season.”

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The Dutch Grand Prix was the fourth double podium of Mercedes’ season. Antonelli crossed the line 11.5 seconds behind Norris; Russell followed 4.4 seconds later.

Antonelli leads the drivers’ standings with 242 points; Russell has moved into second on 183, ahead of Hamilton on countback. Mercedes’ constructors’ lead over Ferrari has stretched to 87 points.

The next stop is Monza on Sunday 6 September, Antonelli’s home race.

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