George Russell Disqualified, Lewis Hamilton Wins In Belgium

The final result of one of the best races of the past few years wasn’t decided until well after the chequered flag had been waved. On track, it ended with a Mercedes one-two, George Russell ahead of Lewis Hamilton, the pair joined on the podium by Oscar Piastri. However, post-race scrutineering revealed that the number 63 car was underweight as per the technical regulations and therefore George Russell was disqualified, the win going to his team-mate Hamilton, with Piastri now second and Charles Leclerc moving up to the third step of the podium. This is Hamilton’s 105th win from 346 Grand Prix starts, while it’s win number 128 for Mercedes, its third this season and a seventh in the Belgian Grand Prix.

On the grid, the vast majority of drivers had opted to start on the Medium. The only exceptions were Sainz and Zhou who chose the Hard and Ricciardo who preferred the Soft.

The two-stop was the most popular strategy, while the Hard was the compound that performed best, both in terms of degradation and performance. Zhou was the only driver to retire and of the remaining 19, five of them – in their finishing order –Russell, Alonso, Stroll, Magnussen and Tsunoda, only pitted once, going from the Medium to the Hard, with the first two of these finishing in the points places, respectively first and ninth.

The prize for the longest stint goes to Russell who did 34 laps on the Hard, while on his final stint, Hulkenberg went furthest (24 laps) on the Medium.

Russell’s Belgian GP Disqualification Explained

Lewis Hamilton

‘It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away from today.

‘The car was feeling good, and we had much better pace than we expected. There were several cars that seemed similar in terms of performance but once we had got ahead, we were able to maintain that position. We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us. George was able to make the one-stop work and, although I got close to him in the final few laps, I was unable to get past in the dirty air.

‘I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races. It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently. Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity.’

George Russell

‘It is heartbreaking to be disqualified from today’s race. It had been an unbelievable Grand Prix for us to make the one-stop strategy work. In what turned out to be my final stint, the tyres just kept getting better and better. I was nursing them in the early stages and as we went further, I became more and more convinced we could get to the end on them. It was a risk worth taking and it looked like it had paid off.

Despite the disqualification, I am of course proud to have crossed the line first. It is also good that the team was still able to take the victory with Lewis. He drove a great race and was the fastest car out there on the two-stop strategy. Whilst I’m incredibly disappointed, I know we will bounce back stronger after the summer break, starting in Zandvoort.’

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

‘We have to take our disqualification on the chin. 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. Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.

‘Despite the disqualification, there are many positives we can take from this weekend. We had a car that was the benchmark in today’s race across two different strategies. Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable. We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races. We will look to come back after shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory.’

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

‘It’s really tough for George to have been disqualified from the win after such an impressive drive. He did a brilliant job to hang onto the tyres and defend to the finish. We don’t yet understand why the car was underweight following the race but will investigate thoroughly to find the explanation. We expect that the loss of rubber from the one stop was a contributing factor, and we’ll work to understand how it happened. We won’t be making any excuses though. It is clearly not good enough and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

‘It was a relief to have Lewis in second to inherit the victory. He also drove a strong race and was the fastest two-stopping car out there today. We can be pleased with the car pace but overall, it’s disappointing not to walk away with the 1-2. That is particularly true after such a good recovery from one of our most difficult Fridays, and following a race that was so well managed by the team. We’ll learn from this and be back strong in Zandvoort after the summer break.’

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“First of all, let me say this was a really exciting race. It’s been quite a while since Formula 1 has put on such a show and it’s unusual to see a race where the outcome is so uncertain, with the top three within just over a second of one another and the first six finishers, all of whom could legitimately claim to have aimed for the win or at least the podium, all finishing within under 10 seconds. It’s a shame the race result had to be changed but, as even Mercedes agreed, the rule regarding weight is very clear.

The second topic is strategy. Going into the race, we stated that a one-stop was not fast enough compared to a two-stop, but leaving aside Russell’s disqualification, his performance would disprove that theory. For a preliminary explanation, at least in terms of tyre behaviour, there are some factors that stand out. First of all, today’s track temperature was around 10 degrees higher than during FP2 and that probably contributed to very limited graining on the Hard, which on the other hand was very significant on the Mediums on a long stint. Furthermore, we can assume that the teams worked hard on defining car set-up to find the best compromise between a wet qualifying and a dry race and to try and protect the front axle, which was most prone to graining. A third element to consider is that many drivers made a point of looking after their Mediums very carefully, especially in the quickest corners.

Two thirds of the race was a fascinating chess game, with moves and countermoves, especially among the leaders, but also further down the field and then it all came to life over the final 15 laps or so, with all the drivers beginning to push and fight for track position. It was a show that, as I said earlier, means we go into the summer break with a strong desire to see something similar in a few weeks’ times in Zandvoort and indeed for the rest of the season.”