Belgian GP 2024: Hamilton wins after Russell is disqualified
Russell crossed the line first at Spa on a one-stop strategy but his Mercedes was underweight, handing Hamilton the win ahead of Piastri and Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on 28 July without crossing the line first. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished 0.526 seconds ahead on a one-stop strategy, then was disqualified when his car was found to be 1.5kg under the minimum weight. Oscar Piastri was promoted to second for McLaren and pole-sitter Charles Leclerc to third.
How Russell won on the road and lost on the scales
Max Verstappen was fastest in a damp qualifying session by almost six tenths, but a 10-place grid penalty for his fifth combustion engine of the season dropped him to 11th. That handed pole to Leclerc, with Sergio Pérez alongside him. Hamilton lined up third, Russell sixth.
Hamilton got past Pérez at the start and used DRS on the Kemmel Straight to take the lead from Leclerc on lap 3. Most of the front-runners were on two stops. Russell pitted early for hard tyres and Mercedes left him out on that set to the flag, which put him in front once Piastri made his second stop.
Hamilton stopped again on lap 27 and hunted his team-mate down on fresher rubber. He was within a second over the last four laps but never made a move stick at Les Combes, and the top three crossed the line covered by 1.173 seconds. Then came the scales. Russell's car first matched the 798kg limit, but once the remaining fuel was drained it read 796.5kg.
Mercedes told the stewards it was a genuine error, and car 63 was thrown out of the results. That made it 105 career wins for Hamilton and two this season. Russell, who would have had the third win of his career, left Spa with no points.
Hamilton vs Russell and the other team-mate duels
Mercedes. Hamilton out-qualified Russell, fourth to seventh, so the Saturday point is his. Sunday is excluded in our model because of the disqualification, so Russell's drive counts for nothing on F1 Duels either. Their head-to-head still leans Russell's way: 10–4 in qualifying and 7–4 in races.
McLaren. Lando Norris beat Piastri by 0.046 seconds in qualifying, then lost the race to him. Norris made another poor start, fell to seventh, ran wide at the chicane on lap 2 and never looked comfortable. Piastri got over a slow second stop and passed Leclerc in the closing stages. Norris leads their duel 11–3 on Saturdays, but the race count is tighter at 9–5 in our count.
Red Bull. Pérez started on the front row for the first time since the Chinese GP in April and finished seventh. He lost second to Hamilton at the start, reported a battery issue and was passed late on by Carlos Sainz. Verstappen, from 11th, finished fourth. Verstappen vs Pérez now stands at 14–0 in qualifying and 11–0 in races on F1 Duels.
Haas. Kevin Magnussen finished 14th, four places ahead of Nico Hülkenberg, only his second race win in the pairing this year. Hülkenberg vs Magnussen reads 12–2 in qualifying and 11–2 in races. At Sauber, Zhou Guanyu retired early with a hydraulic problem, so his race against Valtteri Bottas does not count.
What it means for the championship
Verstappen goes into the summer break on 277 points, 78 ahead of Norris. Leclerc is third on 177, ten clear of Piastri, with Sainz on 162 and Hamilton sixth on 150. Russell stays on 116. Every verdict from the weekend is on the Belgian GP duels page.