LEWIS HAMILTON has won the Belgian GP in dramatic style after team-mate George Russell was disqualified hours after the race the finished.
The stewards found that Russell’s car – which ran a one-stop strategy – was underweight after it was drained of fuel during the usual post-race checks.
Russell was disqualified and team-mate Lewis Hamilton was crowned the race winner, to claim his second GP win of the season.
Hamilton – whose two pits caused him to drop in behind Russell – originally formed an impressive Mercedes one-two after the team ditched their updates on Friday.
The Brit’s vehicle was referred to the stewards after it was found to be 1.5kg underweight in the usual post-race checks, once the fuel was removed.
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.
Infringements of technical rules result in slam-dunk disqualifications whatever any mitigating circumstances are.
A Technical Delegate’s report read: “After the race, car number 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0 kg, which is the minimum weight required by TR Article 4.1.
“After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 litres of fuel were removed.
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“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 car was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg.”
Russell managed to hold off the seven-time world champion on 24 laps on ONE SET of hard tyres to claim his second title of the season.
He put in an extraordinary drive to run an unusual one-stop strategy in a race that featured battles throughout the leading places.
The 26-year-old started three places behind Hamilton in P6.
Oscar Piastri came a close third for McLaren after a late overtake on Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff believes it could have been the one-tyre strategy that cost Russell his race win.
Wolff said: “I would suspect it’s because we ran one tyre throughout for most of the race.
“You have to take it on the chin. If the stewards decide against ourselves, a mistake has happened.
“A one-two would have been a great result going into the summer break, it couldn’t be any better.”
While Red Bull team boss Christian Horner claimed that Russell’s car would have lost over a kilo of rubber with the one-stop strategy.
He said: “Really sad news as George but obviously a mistake in their calculations.”
