2024 Belgian GP
Results
Race
Lewis Hamilton
1:46.653 Fastest Lap
44 Laps
1st
George Russell
1:47.113 Fastest Lap
44 Laps
DSQ
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton
1:53.835 Fastest Lap
22 Laps
4th
George Russell
1:54.184 Fastest Lap
22 Laps
7th
A superb one-stop drive from George saw him cross the line in P1 with Lewis hot on his heels in P2, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
A few hours after the race though, there was bad news for the team as the FIA found that George's car was 1.5kg under the minimum weight at the end of the race, so he was disqualified from the race. Unfortunately, George's strong race went unrewarded.
As a result, Lewis moved up one position to take his 105th GP win. It was his second win of the season and the team's third, following wins at Spielberg and Silverstone.
The team will now investigate the exact circumstances that led to the disqualification.
After a rainy Saturday, Spa-Francorchamps presented itself from its best side on race day: sunshine and temperatures of around 20°C.
Our driver duo started the last race before the summer break in third and sixth place. The two McLarens started the race between Lewis and George, with Max Verstappen setting the fastest time in qualifying but starting from P11 due to a 10-place grid drop after exceeding his quota for internal combustion engines (ICE) this season.
Both of our drivers had two sets of new Hard tyres and one set of fresh Medium tyres available for the race. The same as McLaren and the opposite to Red Bull.
Both Lewis and George started on the Medium tyres, with only Carlos Sainz and Zhou Guanyu (Hard) and Daniel Ricciardo (Soft) not starting on the Medium.
The Mercedes duo got away well at the start, with both drivers making up a position. Lewis moved up to P2 ahead of Sergio Perez, reporting a contact that turned out to be minor. George, meanwhile, moved up to P5 ahead of Lando Norris.
Lewis then set off in pursuit of Charles Leclerc, getting into his slipstream on lap 3 and overtaking him at the end of the Kemmel straight to take the lead, while George remained in P5.
George came in for his first pit stop on lap 11 at the same time as Verstappen and changed to the Hard tyres after 2.3 seconds. He returned to the track ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in P12.
One lap later, Lewis, Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri came into the pits, with Lewis and Piastri changing from Medium to Hard and Perez remaining on Medium. Lewis came out in P6 ahead of Lance Stroll, Leclerc took the lead ahead of Sainz and Norris, all three of whom had not yet stopped.
After the first pit stop, George was right behind Piastri and Perez, with Verstappen close behind. With George close behind Perez, he suffered from the Red Bull's dirty air, making it easier for Verstappen to put pressure on him.
Just before the halfway point of the race, George resolved the situation by overtaking Perez into Turn 7 and moving up to P4. At that point, he was 3.7 seconds behind Piastri in P3. Lewis led the race by 2.5 seconds ahead of Leclerc.
With 19 laps to go, Ferrari brought Leclerc in to try and undercut Lewis, but he had a slightly slow stop when changing to the Hard tyres. One lap later, Lewis covered Leclerc, also took a new set of Hard tyres and returned to the track ahead of Leclerc.
Meanwhile, Piastri set the fastest lap of the race and proved to be another threat to Lewis, who was stuck behind the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who fortunately pitted shortly afterwards. Norris and Piastri did the same in the following laps.
George led with just one stop ahead of Lewis with two stops, Leclerc was 2.4 seconds behind Lewis and Piastri a further 2.8 seconds behind the Ferrari.
With Piastri and Verstappen pushing hard behind Leclerc, the team decided to try a one-stop strategy with George, which he had discussed with the team a few laps earlier.
With 8 laps to go, Piastri overtook Leclerc in the battle for P3 and then set off in pursuit of Lewis, who was 5.5 seconds clear of the McLaren and closing the gap on George.
Lewis fought his way closer and closer to George in the closing laps of the race and was in turn chased by Piastri, but George held on to the lead and crossed the line half a second ahead of Lewis, who finished one second ahead of Piastri.
As had been the case a week earlier in Hungary, there were three Mercedes-powered cars on the podium in Belgium - but this time the team's two drivers finished ahead of Piastri's McLaren. Until George was disqualified a few hours after the end of the race.
In the Drivers' World Championship, Max Verstappen (275 points) leads Lando Norris (197) by 78 points at the beginning of the summer break. Lewis (150) and George (116) are 6th and 8th respectively.
Red Bull leads the Constructors' World Championship with 404 points after 14 of 24 races, ahead of McLaren (361) and Ferrari (340). The team occupies P4 with 266 points.
After the Belgian Grand Prix, F1 goes into the summer break next week. The next race is the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort at the end of August.
Lewis Hamilton
It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away from today.
The car was feeling good, and we had much better pace than we expected. There were several cars that seemed similar in terms of performance but once we had got ahead, we were able to maintain that position. We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us. George was able to make the one-stop work and, although I got close to him in the final few laps, I was unable to get past in the dirty air.
I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races. It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently. Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity.
George Russell
It is heartbreaking to be disqualified from today’s race. It had been an unbelievable Grand Prix for us to make the one-stop strategy work. In what turned out to be my final stint, the tyres just kept getting better and better. I was nursing them in the early stages and as we went further, I became more and more convinced we could get to the end on them. It was a risk worth taking and it looked like it had paid off.
Despite the disqualification, I am of course proud to have crossed the line first. It is also good that the team was still able to take the victory with Lewis. He drove a great race and was the fastest car out there on the two-stop strategy. Whilst I’m incredibly disappointed, I know we will bounce back stronger after the summer break, starting in Zandvoort.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO
We have to take our disqualification on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race. Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.
Despite the disqualification, there are many positives we can take from this weekend. We had a car that was the benchmark in today's race across two different strategies. Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable. We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races. We will look to come back after shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
It's really tough for George to have been disqualified from the win after such an impressive drive. He did a brilliant job to hang onto the tyres and defend to the finish. We don't yet understand why the car was underweight following the race but will investigate thoroughly to find the explanation. We expect that the loss of rubber from the one stop was a contributing factor, and we'll work to understand how it happened. We won't be making any excuses though. It is clearly not good enough and we need to make sure it doesn't happen again.
It was a relief to have Lewis in second to inherit the victory. He also drove a strong race and was the fastest two-stopping car out there today. We can be pleased with the car pace but overall, it's disappointing not to walk away with the 1-2. That is particularly true after such a good recovery from one of our most difficult Fridays, and following a race that was so well managed by the team. We'll learn from this and be back strong in Zandvoort after the summer break.
2024 Belgian GP Result
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG | |
2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +1.173 |
3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +8.549 |
4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +9.226 |
5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +9.850 |
6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +19.795 |
7 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | +43.195 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +49.963 |
9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | +52.552 |
10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Racing Bulls | +54.926 |
11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +1:03.011 |
12 | Alexander Albon | Williams | +1:03.651 |
13 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1:04.365 |
14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | +1:06.631 |
15 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | +1:10.638 |
16 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | +1:16.737 |
17 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | +1:26.057 |
18 | Nico Hülkenberg | Haas | +1:28.833 |
Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | DNF | |
George Russell | Mercedes-AMG | DQ |