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Lewis Hamilton Wins Belgian GP After Teammate DQ

Update (1:11 p.m. ET): Lewis Hamilton has been named the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix in Formula 1 after George Russell was disqualified due to an underwight car.

A postrace report announced that Russell’s Mercedes that the car’s fuel reserves were not fully drained when it was weighed; once reweighed after 2.8 additional liters were removed, it was found to be under the minimum 798-kg. weight, coming in instead at 796.5.

Oscar Piastri has been promoted to second, while Charles Leclerc is now credited with third.

“We have to take it on the chin if the stewards decide against ourselves,” Mercedes’ Toto Wolff said prior to the ruling, according to the F1 website. “It is what it is, the mistake has happened.

“We have to learn from that. As a team there are more positives to take, obviously for George it’s a massive blow.”

The win marks Hamilton’s second victory of 2024.

Original article: George Russell executed a one-stop strategy to capture the win in the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps on Sunday (July 28).

“The car was feeling really, really great,” Russell told Sky Sports. “We were back and forth on the comms like, ‘I think the one stop — let’s consider the one stop. Tires are good. Tires are good.’

“And I got to be honest, I was rolling the dice a little bit. But suddenly, I got them into a really nice window. I got in that groove, and when I was in the lead, it was totally clean air ahead. There was no back markers, no one else around, and [I] kind of felt like one with the track. And it just really allowed me to get into such a great rhythm, almost like I was driving a simulator. We couldn’t have dreamt of a 1-2 [finish] this morning.”

Russell was able to hold off his Mercedes-Benz teammate Lewis Hamilton by a gap of .526 seconds as well as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the closing laps to earn his third career Formula 1 Grand Prix victory and second of 2024. He is now the only driver besides Max Verstappen to win multiple races this season.

Mercedes earned its first 1-2 finish since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2022, Russell’s first career F1 victory.

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Polesitter Charles Leclerc finished fourth, ahead of Verstappen and Lando Norris.

Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez (who scored the fastest lap), Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10.

Leclerc inherited the pole after Verstappen was dinged with a 10-place grid penalty due to his team taking a new internal combustion engine part for this weekend, exceeding his allocation for the season.

Leclerc was able to drive away from the start while Hamilton and Perez battled for second. Hamilton broke free from the Red Bull of Perez and the made quick work of Leclerc, passing the Ferrari on lap 3.

The opening tire run was processional through the top eight of the field. But after the first pit stops, Piastri was the biggest mover after re-passing Russell, who attempted an undercut, and Perez.

Sainz started on the hard compound tire and was the last of the leaders to pit as he pitted on lap 21 to take the medium tire.

Perez fell from third to sixth in the second tire stint, and he was first of the leaders to make the second pit stop on lap 22, immediately clocking fastest laps.

Hamilton managed the gap from Leclerc to 2.4 seconds before the No. 16 Ferrari dived into pit road on lap 25. However, a 3.4 second stop hindered the Monegasque from undercutting Hamilton.

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All the leaders pitted except one: Russell. Happy with his tires, Russell opted to stay out, leading ahead of his teammate Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Hamilton was worried about a driver behind him. Piastri moved to third after passing Leclerc. Piastri needed to close in on a 5.5-second gap to Hamilton on lap 38 of 44. However, he was unable to make any gain on Hamilton before the Mercedes driver caught his teammate for the lead.

With four laps to go, Hamilton got to the back of Russell, and over the final four laps, the two Mercedes duked it out for the win. Piastri closed into DRS range on the final lap, but the one-stop strategy gave Russell just enough of a cushion to hang on to the victory.

There were no safety cars during the race, and Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu was the only retirement with a hydraulics failure.

Verstappen’s championship lead climbed to 78 points over Norris. Competition for third heated up between the five drivers of Leclerc (-101), Piastri (-111), Sainz (-115), Hamilton (-132) and Russell (-134). Perez fell to eighth in the drivers standings, 146 points behind his championship-leading teammate.

McLaren closed in on Red Bull in the constructors’ standings. The two leading constructors are separated by 43 points. Ferrari is 64 points behind, and Mercedes’ 1-2 finish moves the Silver Arrows to 120 points behind Red Bull.

Belgian Grand Prix Results

F1 heads into its traditional summer break and will be back Aug. 25 at 8 a.m. ET for the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Park Zandvoort. Coverage will be provided by ESPN and ESPN+.

Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.

Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime

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