Hours after George Russell won the Belgian Grand Prix for Mercedes, Formula 1 announced he has been disqualified from the race due to an underweight car. Teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was the runner-up, inherits the victory.
Russell’s victory was taken away after his car was underweight following the post-race inspection. F1 stewards summoned Mercedes after race officials reviewed the technical report about the car’s weight.
“We have to take our disqualification on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff wrote in a statement. “WE will go away and evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose 1-2 is frustrating, and we can only apologize to George, who drove such a strong race.”
Hamilton will now pick up his 105th victory in Formula 1 while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri moved up into second while Charles Leclerc was bumped up to a podium finish for Ferrari.
Russell took his car to the limit after starting in sixth place but used only one pit stop and was able to hold off the rest of the drivers behind him.
Max Verstappen initially finished the race in fifth place behind Leclerc. He posted the fastest lap in qualifying but had a 10-second grid penalty enforced for using too many power units in his Red Bull.
The result didn’t impact Verstappen’s position in the driver’s championship, as he remains 78 points ahead of Lando Norris, who finished fifth.
With Hamilton’s victory, Mercedes continues to enjoy a successful run, picking up its third victory over the last four races.
With 14 of 24 races down, the season now enters a summer break until the Dutch GP on Aug. 25.
-With files from the Associated Press.
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