diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/redirect.py b/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/redirect.py
index acf109cdc..f6ae43733 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/redirect.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/downloadermiddleware/redirect.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from scrapy import log
 from scrapy.utils.url import urljoin_rfc
 from scrapy.utils.response import get_meta_refresh
+from scrapy.core.exceptions import IgnoreRequest
 from scrapy.conf import settings
 
 
@@ -49,5 +50,6 @@ class RedirectMiddleware(object):
         else:
             log.msg("Discarding %s: max redirections reached" % request,
                     domain=spider.domain_name, level=log.DEBUG)
+            raise IgnoreRequest
 
 
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_redirect.py b/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_redirect.py
index 0db49e485..3838ea9b2 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_redirect.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_downloadermiddleware_redirect.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import unittest
 
 from scrapy.contrib.downloadermiddleware.redirect import RedirectMiddleware
 from scrapy.spider import spiders
+from scrapy.core.exceptions import IgnoreRequest
 from scrapy.http import Request, Response, Headers
 
 class RedirectMiddlewareTest(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -84,9 +85,7 @@ class RedirectMiddlewareTest(unittest.TestCase):
         assert isinstance(req, Request)
         assert 'redirect_times' in req.meta
         self.assertEqual(req.meta['redirect_times'], 1)
-
-        req = self.mw.process_response(req, rsp, self.spider)
-        self.assertEqual(req, None)
+        self.assertRaises(IgnoreRequest, self.mw.process_response, req, rsp, self.spider)
 
     def test_ttl(self):
         self.mw.max_redirect_times = 100
@@ -95,8 +94,7 @@ class RedirectMiddlewareTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         req = self.mw.process_response(req, rsp, self.spider)
         assert isinstance(req, Request)
-        req = self.mw.process_response(req, rsp, self.spider)
-        self.assertEqual(req, None)
+        self.assertRaises(IgnoreRequest, self.mw.process_response, req, rsp, self.spider)
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()