Lewis Hamilton wins Belgian GP as George Russell disqualified

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- George Russell was disqualified after the winning the Belgian Grand Prix following a stewards investigation into his car being 1.5 kilograms underweight.

Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished second, was promoted to first for his second victory of the season, as Oscar Piastri moves to second and Charles Leclerc, who started on the pole, is third.

Russell's car was weighed after the race and found to be at the minimum weight (798kg), but after fuel was drained from the Mercedes it was found to be underweight.

The matter was referred to the stewards, who determined Russell's car be disqualified.

As the drivers crossed the line, the top three, including Russell, were split by just 1.1 seconds.

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Hamilton looked best placed to win for the vast majority of the race. He fought Red Bull's Sergio Perez at the start to move into second, and eventually passed Leclerc for the race lead. But Russell, who started sixth, leapfrogged into the lead on a one-stop strategy while the rest of the front-runners were on a two-stop strategy that saw them shuffled behind.

Russell came in for his first pit stop on Lap 10 with Hamilton coming in two laps later, but as Hamilton came in again on Lap 27, Mercedes were happy for his teammate to stay out until the end.

Hamilton closed to within a second of Russell over the final four laps, but couldn't make a move stick at the main overtaking opportunity at Les Combes.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff later said that they needed Hamilton to cover off Leclerc and Lando Norris, and Russell, out on the hard tyre, had "nothing to lose."

Russell said afterward, prior to the investigation: "Amazing result, we definitely didn't predict this win in our strategy meeting this morning but the car was feeling awesome!

"We made a lot of changes from Friday night and I was saying, 'I feel we can do a one-stop' and the strategy did a really great job. Also well done to Lewis because he really controlled that race and if circumstances were slightly different he would've got that win. But a one-two for the team was an awesome result and a great way to go into the summer break."

Meanwhile, Hamilton said: "We definitely didn't [expect the result]. First I have to say congratulations to George and to the team.

"We had such a disaster on Friday, the car was nowhere and we made some changes and it was hard to see what it was going to feel like because of the rain yesterday, but the car was fantastic and we owe it to everyone here and doing a solid job through the pit stops and strategy and the guys at the factory.

"I was trying to get closer but George did a great job of going long on the tyres. On every stint I had tyres left but the team pulled me in and unfortunate, but it was one of those days."

Challenges from the McLarens and championship leader Max Verstappen, who started 11th, never fully materialised.

Verstappen finished fourth (after Russell's disqualification), extending his lead in the championship over Norris, who finished fifth, after the McLaren driver made a slow start and never looked comfortable in the race.

Norris' teammate Piastri said afterward on his fourth podium of the year: "I'm happy with the result, we managed the race very well. I think that's the second or third time this year I've tried to run over the front jack, so I'll try not to do that next time.

"It took me a couple of laps to get past Charles and I overheated the tyres doing that, but clearly the pace for George staying out there on one set of hards was the right thing to do, so we just didn't quite have enough pace to mow him down -- even Lewis didn't quite have enough, so I think we did a lot of things right and gave ourselves the best opportunity but not quite enough."

Verstappen is 78 points clear of Norris going into the three-week summer break in the drivers' championship, while McLaren closed the gap on Red Bull in the constructors' championship to just 43 points.