George Russell pips Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes secure one-two at Belgian GP
Oscar Piastri was third, with world champion Max Verstappen fifth.
George Russell held off Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win the Belgian Grand Prix following a thrilling finale at Spa-Francorchamps.
Hamilton looked set to follow up his victory at Silverstone three weeks ago with another visit to the winner’s enclosure after he assumed the lead of the race on lap three of 44.
But Russell, who started sixth, had other plans and he adopted a bold one-stop strategy to outfox his rivals and claim just the third victory of his career.
Russell crossed the line a mere half a second ahead of Hamilton, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri third and only six tenths behind the runner-up. Ferrari pole-sitter Charles Leclerc took fourth place.
Max Verstappen started 11th following an engine penalty and crossed the line in fifth, one place ahead of a disappointed Lando Norris, to extend his championship lead over the British driver heading into Formula One’s four-week summer shutdown.
Mercedes are a team rejuvenated. Following a painful start to the season for the Silver Arrows, this marked the constructor’s first one-two finish since the penultimate round of the 2022 season in Brazil.
Russell claimed his maiden win on that day in Interlagos, and here, seemingly against all the odds, it was his turn again.
For much of this fascinating contest, it looked as though it would be Hamilton who would win after he started third, and blasted past Red Bull’s Sergio Perez on the run up to Eau Rouge on the opening lap before moving clear of Leclerc on lap three.
But on lap 26, Hamilton peeled into the pits for his second change of rubber with Russell calling on his team to consider a one-stop strategy.
With a dozen laps remaining, Russell, on ageing rubber, was seven seconds clear of Hamilton.
“Am I on target to beat him?” Hamilton asked. “It will be close,” came the reply from his race engineer, Peter Bonnington.
With a handful of laps remaining, Hamilton was occupying Russell’s mirrors but he never got close enough to threaten.
“I had tyres left, but the team called me in,” Hamilton said. “Unfortunate. But that is what it is.”
A jubilant Russell was lauded as “the tyre whisperer” by team principal Toto Wolff over the radio.
“Amazing result,” Russell said. “We did not predict the win this morning but I kept saying we could do the one-stop and the strategy guys did a great job.”
For Norris, he will be feeling this was a missed opportunity to take a chunk out of Verstappen’s championship lead.
Norris lined up from fourth on the grid, but a week after a poor getaway at the Hungaroring allowed Piastri to take control of the race and claim his maiden win, the Englishman was left to rue another bad start.
The 24-year-old held his position ahead of the opening La Source corner, but he dipped his rear-left tyre into the gravel which cost him dearly on the 220mph drag through Eau Rouge and into the Kemmel Straight.
Suddenly, Norris was seventh and midway through the second lap Verstappen – who had started seven places behind him – was just one position back in eighth.
McLaren’s strategy will also be back in the spotlight after Verstappen undercut Norris at the opening round of stops.
Verstappen stopped on lap 10 but Norris was not hauled in for his first of two tyre changes until lap 15. When he left the pits, he was six seconds behind the Dutchman and he did not have the pace to get back past his title rival.
