Russell Loses Belgian Win Due To Mercedes Technical Infringement

Even though Formula 1’s official summer break started at the conclusion of this afternoon’s Belgian Grand Prix following a truly impressive drive to victory by George Russell, there’s always the risk of a potential totally unexpected spanner in the works to spoil the post-race celebrations and thoughts of forthcoming holidays and how poor Russell has just suffered in this respect.

Two and a half hours after today’s chequered flag Russell was disqualified from the results of the race due to his Mercedes team having failed by a small 1.5kg margin to ensure that his car met the minimum post-race 798kg weight requirement. So, Lewis Hamilton inherited Russell’s victory, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri promoted to second, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to third and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to fourth.

The Mercedes team principal and CEO, Toto Wolff, who noticeably failed to raise a smile when Russell had beaten Hamilton to the chequered flag, said after hearing the later news:

We have to take our disqualification on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure that we learn from it. To lose a 1-2 finish is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race.