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NOS Sport•Sunday, 16:27•Adjusted Sunday, 18:58
George Russell has lost his victory in the Belgian Grand Prix. The Englishman has been disqualified because his car was found to be 1.5 kilograms too light.
The disqualification means that Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton is declared the winner. Oscar Piastri is promoted to second place, Charles Leclerc gets the third trophy. Max Verstappen finishes fourth due to this change.
Russell initially won the race after a brilliant strategic move. He was the only top driver to make just one pit stop, putting him in front and keeping Hamilton and his other rivals behind.
Verstappen was condemned to a catch-up race at Spa-Francorchamps and finished fifth, but that has now become fourth place.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff responded to the disqualification in a statement on X. He acknowledged that a mistake had been made and apologized to Russell.
It was a bitter pill for the reigning world champion to swallow that after his excellent qualifying, in which he was the fastest, he still had to start from eleventh place.
Red Bull changed its combustion engine for the fourth time in a year, which resulted in Verstappen receiving a ten-place grid penalty.
Annoying, because the reigning world champion has had a hard time in recent weeks. McLaren’s cars have proven to be lightning fast this season, the new Red Bull is a bit disappointing.
Last week in Hungary, Verstappen also complained about the strategic mistakes of his team management.
Good start
From that eleventh place Verstappen did make good progress, mentally perhaps strengthened by his good qualification. After a few laps he had already overtaken three drivers.
At the front, Charles Leclerc was unable to hold on to his lead for long. Hamilton, who recently won his first Grand Prix in almost three years at Silverstone, overtook him on the straight. Russell crept along in his wake.
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Verstappen’s advance stopped when he got caught in the DRS train. This occurs when multiple drivers driving behind each other are allowed to open their rear wing at the same time. Then no one benefits and no one is able to overtake.
It was a stroke of luck for Verstappen that Lando Norris, the number two in the World Championship standings, had a bad race. The McLaren driver started fourth, but quickly dropped back. Norris finished the race sixth and thus lost two points in the World Championship.
Incidentally, Sergio Perez also drove a weak race. Verstappen’s Mexican teammate is under heavy pressure at Red Bull after a series of mediocre performances. Perez started second, but finished eighth.
Hamilton vs Russell
Hamilton dominated the race for a long time, while Russell initially did not even dare to dream of a victory. It became clear to him that he could only beat Hamilton with a one-stopper.
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Leclerc was unable to hold on to his third place and saw Piastri pass him. It was a shame for the young Australian that he made a bad pit stop. That may have cost him the victory in retrospect.
Verstappen eventually escaped from his DRS train, but his overtaking race stalled in P5. He was unable to attack Leclerc on his medium tyres. He had no support from Pérez, who was already behind him.
Ultimately, the Grand Prix on the famous Spa circuit resulted in a very exciting battle between the two Mercedes drivers on the track. For a long time, it looked as if Russell, with his poorer tyres, would be overtaken by Hamilton.
In the last three laps Russell defended heroically. Hamilton rammed into his gate, but couldn’t get past. Until more than two hours after the race, when he was finally awarded the victory after intervention by the stewards.
