Hamilton given win in Belgium as Russell Disqualified



Lewis Hamilton inherited victory in the Belgian Grand Prix after Mercedes team-mate George Russell was disqualified two and a half hours after taking an unlikely win on the track.

Russell pulled off an unusual 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 his team admitting to "a genuine error".

That saw Hamilton promoted to a victory that had looked likely for much of the race - after he took the lead from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the second lap.

Oscar Piastri is moved up to second, with Leclerc third and Max Verstappen fourth.

Russell's car was initially weighed at 798kg, which is exactly on the minimum weight limit for car and driver combined.

But stewards found the car had not been fully drained of fuel and when it was, its weight was just 796.5kg.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: “We have to take our disqualification on the chin.

"We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure that we learn from it. To lose a one-two finish is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race.

"Lewis was the fastest guy on the two-stop strategy and is a deserving winner."

Russell had appeared to have pulled off a remarkable victory from sixth on the grid, calling the strategy himself from the car, fending off a seven-time champion on tyres that were 15 laps fresher for five laps at the end off the race.

Hamilton was closing in at nearly a second a lap in the final laps but, as so many other drivers found, overtaking was harder than expected and he could never quite get close enough to challenge.

As Russell battled to hold off Hamilton in the final two or three laps, McLaren’s Piastri closed in on the Mercedes to set up a grandstand finish, and the three cars crossed the line nose to tail.

Seven seconds behind them, Ferrari’s Leclerc - who had been passed by Piastri with nine laps to go around the outside of the Les Combes chicane, spent the closing laps fending off Red Bull’s Verstappen and the second McLaren of Lando Norris.

The three spent the final four laps nose to tail but Leclerc managed to hold his rivals at bay.

Behind Norris, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz passed Red Bull’s Sergio Perez with five laps to go to raise further questions about Perez’s future.

Red Bull are expected to make a decision as to whether to drop him for the rest of the season over the forthcoming summer break - just two months after the Mexican signed a new two-year contract.

And dropping from second on the grid to finish at the back of the top four teams will have done Perez no favours.

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