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.
That decision was announced two and a half hours after Russell pulled off a remarkable one-stop strategy and held off Hamilton’s attack in the closing laps. But after the race his car was found to be 1.5kg underweight, with Russell calling the disqualification "heartbreaking".
It was initially weighed at 798kg, which is exactly on the minimum weight limit for car and driver combined but stewards found it had not been fully drained of fuel and, when it was, its weight was just 796.5kg.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: “It is what it is, the mistake has happened. We have to learn from that. As a team there are more positives to take, but, obviously for George it’s a massive blow.”
It meant Hamilton had followed up his victory at Silverstone three weeks ago with another visit to the winner’s enclosure while Russell was denied a third career win.
Russell, who started sixth and adopted a bold one-stop strategy to outfox his rivals, crossed the line a mere half a second ahead of Hamilton, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri third and only six tenths behind the runner-up. Ferrari pole-sitter Charles Leclerc took fourth place.
Max Verstappen started 11th following an engine penalty and crossed the line in fifth, one place ahead of a disappointed Lando Norris, to extend his championship lead over the British driver heading into Formula One’s four-week summer shutdown.
Piastri was elevated to second place and Leclerc to third. Championship points leader Max Verstappen was moved up to fourth. The Red Bull driver now has 277 points in the drivers' championship, 78 clear of Norris
Before the crushing news emerged, Russell's performance on the track had been little short of outstanding.
The 26-year-old drove the 44-lap race with only one pit stop, which led to him going 34 laps on his second set of tyres, a strategic decision taken during the contest enabling him to take the lead and what appeared to be his second victory this season.
“Amazing,” said the Briton straight after the race. “We definitely didn’t predict this win this morning in our strategy meeting but the car was feeling really awesome.
“We made a lot of changes from Friday night and the tyres just felt great. I kept saying ‘we can do the one stop’.
“Piastri did a really great job and also well done to Lewis – he really controlled that race and if circumstances were slightly different I am sure he would have got the victory but a one-two for the team was such an awesome result and such a great way to go into the break.”
Teammate Hamilton had admitted the original result had been a surprise after the team's struggles on Friday in practice. “We definitely didn't [expect this],” said the seven-time world champion.
“We had such a disaster on Friday; the car was really nowhere. So we made some changes – hard to see what it was going to feel like because of the weather yesterday – but the car was fantastic. So we really owe it to the team here, through the pit stops and strategy, and the guys back at the factory.”
F1 now heads into a summer break with the next race in Zandvoort for the Dutch GP on August 25.
