Yahoo Autos Update: Russell Disqualified After F1 Win at Spa
George Russell was Disqualified from his win in at Spa after his car was found underweight.
George Russell told the team he could finish the race with a one-stop strategy, and Mercedes rolled the dice, ending in a 1-2 victory for the team and Russell's second win of the 2024 season.
Russell ran his second set of Hard tires for 33 laps to achieve his victory.
Update: George Russell's Mercedes has been disqualified after the race for being 1.5 kg underweight; Lewis Hamilton is your Belgian Grand Prix Winner.
After inheriting a win four race weekends ago, George Russell was the first to cross the line in the Belgian Grand Prix Sunday afternoon before his car was disqualified for being underweight.
Starting sixth, Russell worked his way into the top three midrace, and a bold strategy call gave him the chance to control the race from the lead. Russell held on after his first pit stop on lap 11 as his competitors went in for fresh tires between 18-12 laps remaining. Russell's teammate Lewis Hamilton was the closest and given full permission to race his teammate for a win but couldn't get in position in the final six laps. Pundits and competitors assumed that Russell's tires would degrade and they didn't. Russell was able to control the corners and take off, defending the lead.
Russell was allowed to "roll the dice" with a 0ne stop race, while Lewis Hamilton was brought in to pit with tires remaining.
"Every stint, I had tires left, but the team brought me in," Hamiton told Gunter Steiner.
After the race, Russell congratulated his teammate saying if things were different, Hamilton would've won the race with his speed in the middle of it.
"He really controlled that race, and if circumstances were different, he would have won this race," Russell said.
The circumstances changed.
Hamilton, with ten laps to go, was 5.7 seconds behind his teammate and cut it to under.4 seconds. The teammates were told to give each other space but could race it out, hopefully protecting a Mercedes 1-2 as Oscar Piastri mounted a surge from third. Piastri, who won his first F1 grand prix last week in a McLaren's 1-2, pitted from the lead with 12 to go and lost time in the pits when he overshot, running hard into his front jack. With Russell's disqualification, Piastri scores his third second-place finish of the season
"I think this is the third time this year that I've tried to run over the front jack," Piastri said. "I'll try not to do that again."
Once released, Piastri was able to get on track before the Red Bulls and his teammate Lando Norris made it back around, but behind Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver that started on the pole was able to keep the much faster McLaren of Piastri behind for two laps, cutting into the time that Piastri had to battle the Mercedes.
Once by Leclerc, Piastri was in clean air and could continue to chip away at Russell and Hamilton's lead.
"Honestly, yes, I thought I could," Piastri said about reclaiming the lead. "Clean air was really the difference today.
Leclerc finished fourth and will be scored third in front of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris as the latter two battle for the WDC; Verstappen adds two points to his buffer. Verstappen's Red Bull teammate went to pit with two laps remaining to change to Soft tires and steal the fastest lap from Norris, taking away one potential point.
Carlos Sainz finished seventh and will be credited sixth after passing Perez with five laps to go. Perez was able to comfortably hold on after his pit as the drivers fighting for positions ninth through 11th battled for points.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso captured ninth, and in the final laps, Esteban Ocon made it by Daniel Ricciardo for the final points-paying position in tenth.
Alonso moves to eighth, Ocon to ninth, and Ricciardo ends up securing a point for Visa Cash App with his now tenth-place finish.
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