George Russell narrowly beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton to a remarkable win on an unlikely one-stop strategy in the Belgian Grand Prix as Mercedes finished first and second to continue their impressive Formula 1 resurgence.
But Russell’s win is now in serious jeopardy after his car was found in post-race checks by the FIA technical delegate to be underweight once fuel was fully drained from it. The matter has been referred to the stewards.
In a race in which other teams had been tipped to be the favourites after a rain-hit qualifying and a penalty for Max Verstappen had mixed up the top of the grid, it was Mercedes who emerged as the team to beat 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 his third career win and second in the last four races.
Having gone 19 months without a win in F1, Mercedes have now won three of the last four races to revive a season which had been threatening to prove a huge disappointment.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took the final podium place in third just 1.1s behind Russell as the top three finished almost nose-to-nail across the line.
After a lap-one tussle with the eventual race winner, Piastri had also been ahead of Russell but, like Hamilton, stopped twice and so surrendered track position to the long-running Mercedes. The Hungarian GP victor’s hopes of consecutive race wins were further compromised at his second stop when he lost time by going long in his pit box.
On his return to the track, Piastri caught and passed Ferrari’s Charles 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 Mercedes cars.
Lando Norris had again started ahead of Piastri but, again, left the first corner behind his team-mate after a mistake on the exit of La Source saw him lose ground.
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An eventful opening lap sees Lewis Hamilton overtake Sergio Perez for second place.
Undercut by the recovering Verstappen at the first stops, Norris couldn’t find a way back past his title rival despite appearing to have the quicker car with the Red Bull taking fifth and the McLaren sixth.
Verstappen therefore increases his title lead over Norris by two points to 78 heading into the summer break.
But with under-pressure Sergio Perez dropping from second on the grid to an eventual eighth behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s constructors’ title lead over McLaren has been reduced again with the reigning champions’ advantage now just 43 points.
Fernando Alonso was a hard-fought ninth for Aston Martin with Esteban Ocon beating RB’s Daniel Ricciardo the final point for Alpine at the end of a strong weekend for the Haas-bound Frenchman.
Just how did victorious Russell do that?
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Watch as Sky Sport’s Karun Chandhok explains how George Russell’s one-stop strategy led him to his second F1 victory this season at Spa.
The question many – including a clearly miffed Hamilton – were wondering after a race in which Russell had spent the opening laps seemingly well of out realistic victory contention when running in fifth place.
It was instead a surging Hamilton who had been the Mercedes driver on the move in the early laps to seemingly position himself as the race’s most-likely victor.
Passing Perez for second off the line before the first corner, and then successfully defending against the Red Bull on the slipstream-friendly run up the hill through Eau Rouge to the Les Combes chicane, Hamilton seized the lead from Leclerc down the Kemmel Straight two laps later with the aid of DRS on the Ferrari.
As Hamilton opened a small but handy early lead of around two seconds over Leclerc, Russell pitted early from fifth on lap 10 – one lap earlier than his team-mate – and then quickly overtook the ailing Perez into Les Combes soon after his return to the track.
Significantly. it was then while running third on lap 26 – at the time nine seconds behind leader Hamilton and four-and-a-half behind Piastri – that Russell offered what appeared a bold strategy gamble to the Mercedes pit wall over team radio.
“Think about the one stop,” said Russell.
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George Russell was delighted his one-stop strategy paid off after winning in Belgium, while Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton hailed a one-two finish for the team.
With Hamilton and then Piastri imminently pitting as planned on the conventional two-stopper, Russell duly stayed out and seized a lead which utterly transformed his race.
On 16-lap fresher hard tyres, Hamilton re-emerged and was naturally significantly faster than Russell by up to half a second a lap, although the performance off-set was not such that Hamilton absolutely raced up to the back of his team-mate.
He eventually got there on lap 40 with four laps to go but, seemingly hamstrung by the ‘dirty air’ being produced by the sister car ahead, could not get close enough to Russell even with DRS to truly attempt a winning overtake.
More to follow…
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