SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — George Russell led a Mercedes one-two with Lewis Hamilton at the Belgian Grand Prix, only to see the victory taken away hours later after he was disqualified.
The outcome put a damper on an otherwise thrilling Formula 1 race on Sunday.
Russell’s victory was wiped out after his car was found to be underweight. The race officials reviewed the technical report regarding his car’s weight, with Mercedes summoned by F1 stewards.
The win was then passed to Hamilton for his 105th GP victory in F1, with Oscar Piastri moving into second and pole-sitter Charles Leclerc getting on to the podium in third.
The outcome had little impact on the overall driver’s championship, which Max Verstappan leads comfortably.
Points leader Verstappen wound up fourth, behind Leclerc in his Ferrari after the three-time defending champion started from 11th following a 10-place grid penalty for using one too many engines in his Red Bull.
Lando Norris endured another poor start in his McLaren and finished fifth, allowing Verstappen to extend his championship lead to 78 points.
Russell was not expected to be in the mix for the win after he started sixth. But he told his team that he felt confident that he could milk his tires for all they were worth and forego a second, time-consuming, pit stop.
Russell looked like he would be caught by Hamilton and other drivers on fresher tires. Instead, he defended his position over the nail-biting final laps with Piastri lurking in case the teammates clashed.
His only stop came on lap 10, so Russell stayed out for 34 laps on the same tires and fended off a Hamilton who had spent 18 laps on his last set.
After Russell shouted for joy after the checkered flag, his team radio half-jokingly praised him as “the tire whisperer.”
The 26-year-old driver shared any credit with his team for making that strategy call.
After struggling early on this season, Mercedes has now won three of the last four races. Russell triumphed in Austria and Hamilton in Britain.
With McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all producing similar pace — and avoiding race-ending crashes — the victory was a question of small margins and getting the pit-stop and tire strategy right.
Piastri was under two seconds behind Russell and the top six all crossed within 10 seconds.
Piastri, who got his first F1 win last weekend in Budapest, said that he thought his fresh tires would make the difference.
Verstappen has now gone four races without a win after he won four of the first five grands prix this year.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was sixth, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who had started second in another poor showing for the under-pressure Mexican driver. Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, and Esteban Ocon ninth in his Alpine.
The Spa track, set in the rolling forests of the Ardennes, is the longest in F1 at seven kilometres. It stayed dry on Sunday in contrast to the constant drizzle the day before that led to a F2 race being postponed.
With 14 of 24 races down, the season now enters a summer break until the Dutch GP on Aug. 25.