George Russell has lost his Belgian GP victory after his car found to be underweight. The Mercedes driver had pulled off a bold one-stop strategy to win the race. However, he has now been disqualified for the technical infringement.
As a result, Lewis Hamilton now inherits victory. McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc have been promoted to P2 and P3, respectively.
- Hamilton wins, ahead of Piastri and Leclerc
- Verstappen extends championship lead over Norris
Russell disqualified from Belgian GP
Polesitter Charles Leclerc held the lead initially, but was overtaken by Hamilton within two laps. From there on, the seven-time F1 world champion looked on course to win the race, but Russell had other plans.
Russell had pitted for hard tyres early on Lap 10 and while all the front-runners opted for a two-stop strategy, the Mercedes driver gambled on the alternate strategy. Hamilton closed in towards the end, but couldn’t find a way past his teammate. Russell took a surprise win, just 0.526 secs ahead of Hamilton, having nursed his tyres for 34 laps.However, his car did not past post-race scrutineering.
A technical delgate submitted a report stating that while Russell's car initially met the minimum weight requirement of 798kg, this was before the fuel was drained. After the required 2.8 litres of fuel was drained, the car weighed 796.5kg - that's 1.5kg underweight.
After being referred to the stewards, it was confirmed that Russell has been disqualified from the race. The stewards added, "During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team."
"We have to take our disqualification on the chin," said Mercedes F1 Team Principal Toto Wolff. "We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologise to George, who drove such a strong race."
Hamilton wins Belgian GP
Russell's disqualification hands victory to Hamilton, who takes his second win of the season following his British GP triumph. This is the Briton's fifth win at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Piastri also moves up to second place. The McLaren driver caught up to both Mercedes drivers in the closing laps, but had lost too much time in the early stages of the race along with a slow pit stop. Leclercm, meanwhile, has been promoted to the final podium spot.
Damage control for Verstappen
Despite setting the fastest time in qualifying, Max Verstappen started the race from P11 after taking his engine-change grid penalty. He couldn’t quite battle for the win, but he did recover to finish fourth. More crucially, he finished ahead of his nearest title rival Lando Norris, who finished fifth.
Carlos Sainz passed Sergio Perez with six laps to go to finish P6. Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10.
2024 F1 championship standings
Verstappen has now gone four races without tasting victory, but he did extend his championship lead in Belgium. He now holds a 78 points advantage over Norris. Leclerc is third overall, 22 points behind Norris.
F1 action will now resume after the summer break, with the Italian GP on August 30 – September 1.
2024 Belgian GP results
