Lewis Hamilton, after finishing second on track to his Mercedes teammate George Russell and his one-stop strategy, was promoted to win in Sunday’s (July 28) Rolex Belgian Grand Prix after Russell was disqualified for an underweight car just hours after the race ended.
“After the race, car No. 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0 kg, which is the minimum weight required by Technical Regulations Article 4.1,” a report from the FIA’s technical delegate read. “After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 liters of fuel were removed.
“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. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.”
“We have to take it on the chin if the stewards decide against ourselves,” said , Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. “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.”
Oscar Piastri, the winner in Hungary a week ago, finished second, while polesitter Charles Leclerc took third. Max Verstappen finished fourth after starting 11th due to a 10-place grid penalty applied for an engine change.
Lando Norris finished fifth after a subpar race start, with Carlos Sainz in sixth, followed by Sergio Perez, who started second on the grid and added a point for setting the race’s fastest lap, in seventh. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished eighth, Esteban Ocon came home ninth and Daniel Ricciardo took 10th.
In the World Drivers’ Championship, Verstappen’s lead over Norris is 277 points to 199 points. Leclerc is third with 177, 10 points clear of Piastri in fourth.
In the constructors’ standings, Red Bull leads McLaren 408 to 366. Ferrari is 21 back in third with 345 points.
The Race
Leclerc used a great start to lead into La Source, and Hamilton got the jump on Perez to take third. Verstappen picked up two quick spots and was in ninth after lap 1. Norris ran wide out of La Source and gave up two spots sorting himself out.
Hamilton used DRS to blast by Leclerc into Les Combes, and the Mercedes upgrades looked to be paying off after troubling performances in Friday’s practice sessions.
While leading comfortably, Hamilton radioed his team that “something [was] moving” near his feet. Was it a figurative gremlin, or a literal gremlin? The issue either corrected itself, or Hamilton was having some phantom sensation in his legs, because the matter was not mentioned further.
After 10 laps, the order was Hamilton, Leclerc, Perez, Piastri, Russell, Sainz, Norris, Verstappen, Alonso and Ocon. Pit stops were upcoming, and all of the top 10 were on medium tires except for Sainz, who started on hards.
Verstappen was the first to pit on lap 11 with Russell following as they both fitted a set of hard tires on. The Red Bull was attempting the undercut on Norris. Hamilton, Perez and Piastri pitted on lap 12 with Piastri and Hamilton taking hards and Perez mediums. Hamilton returned in sixth, behind five cars that had yet to pit.
Norris finally pitted on lap 15 for hard tires and returned in eighth, about 6 seconds behind Verstappen as the Red Bull easily maneuvered the undercut.
Once Sainz pitted, Hamilton re-assumed the lead. Sainz took a set of medium tires and came out behind Norris. Russell took fourth from Perez and Verstappen on lap 22. Perez pitted on lap 23, saving him from a team order to let his teammate by.
Norris was closing into the DRS range, and the stage was set for another Verstappen-Norris battle. It certainly wouldn’t be an easy overtake for Norris, and would likely serve up some vintage Verstappen radio communiques. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Leclerc pitted from second on lap 26 for hard tires, but was jumped by Hamtilon after a slow pit stop. Up front, Piastri led by 5 seconds over Russell, who first posed the question to Mercedes of a one-stop strategy.
Piastri relinquished the lead on lap 31 for the pits, but overshot his box, resulting in a 4.4-second stop. It cost him some time to Leclerc, and Piastri came out in fourth, about 4 seconds behind the Ferrari.
Russell’s lead was over 6 seconds over Hamilton and he was still considering staying out until the end on his hard tires. The field was closing quickly, so the strategy of remaining out would be risky, but the reward could be a race win. At the very least, not pitting could help Hamilton preserve the lead if he did get by Russell. Hamilton’s main concern at the moment was Piastri, who overtook Leclerc for third on lap 36. Were they cueing up the shears for Zak Brown in the McLaren pits?
With Piastri now behind Hamilton and closing, was a Mercedes team order a possibility? And would Russell dutifully follow them if given? Would Mercedes even risk it, considering it may put Russell in the grasp of Piastri’s faster McLaren with fresher tires?
Russell’s lead was down under a second by lap 40 but he showed no signs of backing off. Mercedes gave their two drivers the go-ahead to race, but to do so carefully. Russell would have to drive craftily to keep the much-faster Hamilton at bay. And he did.
Russell crossed the line less than a second ahead of Hamilton, with Piastri’s charge ending with a third. Word came down later of Russell’s disqualification for an underweight car, and Hamilton was declared the winner, with Piastri second.
The Good
The Belgian Grand Prix was an action-packed race, with no less than five drivers leading, and the differing tire strategies among the teams were fascinating to watch. More importantly, we didn’t have to hear a single word about sim racing, or Verstappen’s sleep schedule and we were blessed with just one Verstappen to Red Bull radio transmission which was totally family-friendly.
It was really cool to see the “Deadpool & Wolverine” livery for Alpine to mark the recent release of the movie. The cars featured a Wolverine claw mark on the engine covers. And Ocon drove his Alpine to a 10th in the race. Which makes it a good time to ask: If there’s anything harder than adamantium, would it be Ocon’s head?
The Bad
Hamilton was mightily disappointed at not coming away with the win, and will almost certainly still be disappointed with eventually being declared the winner. And Toto Wolff didn’t look too happy as Russell took the checkered flag. Wolff apparently knew the team’s strategy to pit Hamilton when they did likely cost Hamilton the win, initially.
Hamilton basically verified that theory in his post-race interview, when he implied that the Mercedes team called him in on his pit stops too early, as he felt his tires still had some life left in them. I guess “imply” is the wrong word; Hamilton actually stated as much. At Spa, I guess that would be called “Throwing your team under the Bus Stop Chicane.” Luckily, for Hamilton, at least, it all worked out in the end.
That’s now two weeks in a row in which the disappointed second-place finisher has made for a somewhat subdued celebration for the winner. In Hungary, Norris pouted, taking much of the joy out of Piastri’s win. Hamilton did the same at Belgium, and maybe had the right to, because he controlled 85% of the race, and probably should have won on the track.
As Hamilton might have wanted to say, “You win as a team, you lose because of the team.” I suggest the FIA mandate “No whining” bumper stickers on all cars for the remainder of the season.
Did Guenther Steiner really ask Hamilton after the race if he thought he could “challenge for the championship” given Mercedes’ strong form as of late? He did, and Hamilton answered quickly and politely “No,” albeit with an incredulous chuckle. Note, Hamilton has 150 points and is sixth in the drivers standings, just a slim 127 deficit to Verstappen’s 277. It was a dumb question, and if it hadn’t come from a male’s voice, from a well-over 6-foot-tall body, with a heavy accent indicative of someone born in northern Italy, I could have sworn it was Danica Patrick asking the question.
Grid Walk Moment
Save for a chat with Los Angeles Kings hockey player Anze Kopitar, it appeared to be a celebrity-free grid. Kopitar, a friend of McLaren’s Zak Brown, told Brundle, “It’s my first race, I’m literally shaking right now.” If nothing else, Brundle could have at least channeled Austrian musician Falco, and then asked Anze, “Is everything fine, Herr Kopitar?”
Brundle talked with Brown, and instead of asking him the hard-hitting questions, like “How do you plan on blowing the race this time?,” he queried Brown on a supposed bet he had with Piastri. If Piastri were to win at Belgium, Brown would reportedly get a mohawk. Alas, Piastri came up short, and Brown was free to maintain his generic hairdo. But I think the entire paddock would love to see Brown with a mohawk. We’ve got the style known as the “Valtteri Bottas,” which is “party in the front and back.” The Zak Brown mohawk would be “party up top.”
We were also treated to a ride-along as Brundle took a 1989 Arrows 11 around Spa circuit as he commented on the circuit. Here’s an idea: have Brundle do that every week in a two-seater, with a celebrity or person of note, preferably one who’s deathly afraid of speed and G-forces, along for the ride and a quick interview.
The Disappointing
While the final laps of the race were very exciting, they could have been even more exciting, had Hamilton been able to at least mount a few attacks on Russell’s lead. And, had the race been two laps longer, Piastri could have joined the fight and made the ending pure chaos. Except for some early-lap passes, it seemed like most of the battles for position never quite materialized on track. Even the Norris vs. Verstappen battles never amounted to anything, and they spent much of the race close to each other.
In short, all this race needed was rain.
Piastri nearly plowed through his jackman on his final pit stop, when he overshot his stop. The jackman took it in stride, and did his job. No one was hurt, except for Piastri, because the 4.4-second stop likely cost him 2 seconds in his pursuit of Russell and Hamilton in the closing stages.
The Driver
What a race, and what a mid-race decision to run a one-stop strategy, by Russell. The decision seemed to be all Russell’s, and the team, while they were initially a little skeptical, realized later that Russell was on to something. But praise for Russell and his “One-Stop Mic Drop” strategy were nullified when stewards disqualified him for having an underweight car.
Therefore, Hamilton again gets the promotion, this time to “Driver of the Day,” first for a brilliant start that saw him get by Perez for second on the start, which in turn allowed him to overtake Leclerc for the lead two laps later. Hamilton basically won the race in the first few laps, then saw it taken from him as Russell initially won, only to get it back two hours after the checkered flag. Russell had a weight problem; Hamilton had a “wait” problem.
The Results (Rolex Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps)
| Pos | Driver | Nat. | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 44 Laps |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | AUS | McLaren F1 Team | +0.647s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari | +8.023s |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | NED | Oracle Red Bull Racing | +8.700s |
| 5 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | +9.324s |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | ESP | Scuderia Ferrari | +19.269s |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Oracle Red Bull Racing | +42.669s |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team | +49.437s |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | BWT Alpine F1 Team | +52.026s |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | Visa Cash App RB F1 Team | +54.400s |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | CAN | Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team | +62.485s |
| 12 | Alexander Albon | THA | Williams Racing | +63.125s |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | BWT Alpine F1 Team | +63.839s |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | +66.105s |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber | +70.112s |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | JPN | Visa Cash App RB F1 Team | +76.211s |
| 17 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | +85.531s |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | GER | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | +88.307s |
| Zhou Guanyu | CHN | Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber | DNF | |
| George Russell | GBR | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | DSQ |
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