Lewis Hamilton gains win, after Mercedes car fails post-race checks

George Russell had impressively used a one-stop strategy to narrowly beat two-stopping team-mate Lewis Hamilton to victory at Spa-Francorchamps before his Mercedes car was disqualified after failing a post-race weight race; Max Verstappen beat Lando Norris to fourth to increase title lead.

George Russell lost what had been a remarkable but ultimately fleeting win in the Belgian GP to team-mate Lewis Hamilton after his Mercedes car failed a post-race weight check.

Little over an hour after Russell had taken the chequered flag a mere half a second ahead of Hamilton on an unlikely one-stop strategy after a dramatic race to the finish between the Mercedes team-mates, the FIA’s technical delegate reported that Russell’s car had been found to be underweight during his regular post-race checks.

Stewards later confirmed that to be the case and issued a disqualification for Russell’s car due to a breach of F1’s technical regulations.

Hamilton therefore inherited the win, his second in the last three races and record-extending 105th overall in F1, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri moving into second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completing the revised top-three in third.

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Max Verstappen took fourth, one place ahead of title rival Lando Norris, with Carlos Sainz sixth and Sergio Perez seventh after another difficult race from the front row in the second Red Bull.

Although Russell’s late disqualification denied resurgent Mercedes a first one-two finish in almost three years, the fact they still won the race with Hamilton represented their third triumph in the last four races having previously gone 19 months without a single win.

McLaren and Red Bull had again been tipped as the pre-race favourites despite a rain-hit qualifying and a penalty for Verstappen having mixed up the top of the grid, but Mercedes impressively emerged as the team to beat in the dry thanks to a storming start from third by Hamilton and then a bold strategy call by “tyre whisperer” Russell.

With long-time leader Hamilton stopping for tyres twice and Russell only once, the divergent strategies saw the Mercedes team-mates run first and second into the tense closing stages with the latter gaining track position but on tyres which were 16 laps older.

But Russell, who had called for the one-stop strategy midway through on team radio as he attempted to improve on what had been a distant fifth place, withstood the late sustained pressure from Hamilton to close out what briefly third career win and second in the last four races before his car was found to be non-compliant with the regulations.

Piastri finished on the Mercedes’ tail after catching and passing Leclerc, the polesitter, for third late into the closing laps but ultimately ran out of time to go wheel-to-wheel with either of the top two.