George Russell is ready to be STRIPPED of his Belgian GP win

George Russell looks set to be stripped of his second win of the 2024 F1 season. 

After an incredibly dramatic final lap at the Belgian GP at Spa that saw Russell cross the line in first, barely half a second ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, Russell is now set to lose the win.

The post-race weight of his car has drawn the ire of race stewards and compatriot Hamilton looks likely to inherit the race win. Russell’s car was 1.5kg below the required weight.

In a statement released after the race, Jo Bauer, the FIA Formula One Technical Delegate confirmed: ‘After the race, car number 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0kg, which is the minimum weight required by TR Article 41. After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 litres of fuel were removed.

‘The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedures submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled. The care was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.

‘At this is 1.5kg below the minimum weight requested in Tr Article 4.1, which also has to be respected at all times during the competition, I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration.’

Russell’s likely disqualification would mean his teammate and compatriot Lewis Hamilton would add to his triumph at Silverstone three weeks ago.

The seven-time world champion, Hamilton, burst into the lead of the race on the third lap of 44 in the Ardennes.

Russell, who started sixth, had other plans though and adopted a bold and cunning one-stop strategy to outfox his rivals and claim just the third victory of his career.

Russell crossed the barely half a second ahead of a late charging Hamilton, with Australian and winner last weekend in Hungary Oscar Piastri less than two seconds back. 

Despite starting on pole after Max Verstappen’s grid penalty for a new engine, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc could only manage fourth place.

Three-time world champion Verstappen started 11th following that penalty and moved up through traffic to end up in fifth, one place ahead of his closest rival in the drivers’ championship, Lando Norris. 

Verstappen therefore extended his lead over the British McLaren driver to 78 points ahead of Formula One’s four-week summer break.

For Mercedes, it was a rejuvenating race weekend after a difficult start to the 2024 season. 

This was the Silver Arrows first one-two finish since the penultimate round of the 2022 season in Brazil. George Russell claimed his maiden F1 win that day at Interlagos and looked to have added to his tally

Russell claimed his maiden win on that day in Interlagos, and here, seemingly against all the odds, it looked like being his turn again.

For much of this fascinating contest, it seemed 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.