Lewis Hamilton was promoted to first place at the Belgian Grand Prix after race officials disqualified his Mercedes teammate George Russell for driving an underweight car on Sunday.
Russell crossed the line first after just one pit stop, finishing just ahead of Hamilton. He celebrated his victory at Spa, which would have been the third of the British driver’s career.
But race officials found that his car weighed less than the established limits and decided to disqualify his result.
Hamilton extended his record to 105 career wins for the former seven-time world champion.
George Russell led Mercedes-Benz’s one-two finish with Lewis Hamilton at the Belgian Grand Prix after implementing a bold one-stop strategy and holding off his team-mate to help cap a thrilling Formula 1 season on Sunday.
Russell’s victory could be in doubt, however, as his car has been deemed too light. Race officials are currently reviewing the technical report regarding the weight of his car, and Mercedes has been summoned by F1 stewards.
If Russell is disqualified, victory will go to Hamilton, which would be his 105th F1 GP win.
If Russell is not disqualified, it will be his second win of the season and the third of the British driver’s career after expertly looking after his tyres during the 44-lap race while all the other leading cars stopped twice.
Either way, it will have little impact on the overall drivers’ championship, which Verstappan leads comfortably.
“An incredible result, I really didn’t expect that this morning,” Russell said well before it was announced that his car was suspected of a possible infringement. “But the race was great and the tyres were just brilliant. I kept saying, ‘I think we can do the one stop’.”
Hamilton finished ahead, just behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in third.
Championship leader Max Verstappen finished fifth behind pole-sitter Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari after the three-time defending champion started from 11th following a 10-place grid penalty for using one engine too many in his Red Bull.
Lando Norris had another poor start in his McLaren and finished sixth, allowing Verstappen to extend his championship lead to 78 points.
Russell was not expected to be in contention for victory after starting sixth. But he told his team he was confident he could make the most of his tyres and forgo a time-consuming second pit stop.
It turned out to be a brilliant decision.
Russell looked set to be caught by Hamilton and other drivers on fresher tyres. Instead, he defended his position in the final thrilling laps, with Piastri on the lookout in case his team-mates collided.
His only stop came on lap 10, so Russell stayed on track for 34 laps on the same tyres and held off Hamilton who had spent 18 laps on his final set of tyres.
“We didn’t expect that, so first of all, congratulations to George and the team,” Hamilton said. “I was trying to get closer, but George did a great job using the long tyres. Every stint I still had tyres, but the team brought me in, unfortunately.”
After Russell shouted with joy after the checkered flag, his team radio praised him, half-jokingly, as “the tire whisperer.”
The 26-year-old driver shares all the credit with his team for making this strategic decision.
“It was a team effort, the strategists did a great job. The car was great and the pace was there. It’s well deserved for everyone,” he said. “Well done to Lewis, he did a great job controlling the race and if circumstances had been different he could have won the race.”
After struggling at the start of the season, Mercedes have now won three of the last four races, with Russell triumphing in Austria and Hamilton in Britain.
With McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all producing similar pace – and avoiding race-ending crashes – victory was a matter of tight margins and good pit stop and tyre strategy.
Piastri was less than two seconds behind Russell and the top six all crossed within 10 seconds.
Piastri, who took his first F1 victory last weekend in Budapest, said he believed his new tyres would make the difference.
“(But) we had to continue, as George showed us,” Piastri said after his fourth podium of the season.
The seven winners in 13 races after the Hungarian GP have already made this season the most competitive since 2012.
Verstappen is now four races without a win after winning four of the first five grands prix this year.
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) finished seventh, ahead of Sergio Perez (Red Bull), who started second, which was not the case for the Mexican driver. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished ninth, and Esteban Ocon tenth in his Alpine.
The Spa circuit, set in the rolling forests of the Ardennes, is the longest in F1 at seven kilometres. It remained dry on Sunday, unlike the constant rain the day before which led to the postponement of an F2 race.
With 14 of the 24 races completed, the season now enters a summer break until the Dutch GP on August 25.
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