Hamilton wins Belgian Grand Prix after Russell’s disqualification
George Russell won the race but his car was found to be underweight after the GP which saw him disqualified thus promoting Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton has won his second Grand Prix in three races after race winner George Russell was disqualified.
The 26-year-old British driver won the race but was later disqualified after his Mercedes was found to be underweight following the conclusion of the Grand Prix. Hamilton, who finished second, was promoted to first place after his teammate was disqualified.
Russell had taken victory following a one-stop strategy, which saw him nurse his hard tyres to the chequered flag. The two-time F1 winner also had to hold off Hamilton in the dying stages to win the race however his celebration was short-lived. A Technical Delegate’s Report released after the race stated that, while the car had initially been found to be compliant with the minimum weight of 798kg, 2.8 litres of fuel were then removed.
Hamilton wins his 105 race, Russell disqualified
“The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled,” the report read.
Afrer the Belgian GP, Hamilton said he was disappointed that the team lost out on a 1-2 finish.
“It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away”
“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.”
Hamilton was unhappy initially after Mercedes kept Russell out for a one-stop.
“We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us,” he said.
“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.”
Russell’s punishment sees Hamilton promoted to P1, Oscar Piastri takes P2 and Charles Leclerc moves up to P3.