George Russell DISQUALIFIED hours after winning Belgian Grand Prix as F1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton takes first place

GEORGE RUSSELL had his Belgium Grand Prix victory snatched away from him as he was brutally DISQUALIFIED.

The Mercedes driver’s car was under the minimum weight by 1.5kg after the race having been referred to the stewards.

AP

George Russell pipped Lewis Hamilton at the Belgian GP, but saw his victory taken away after late disqualification[/caption]

Reuters

Russell’s one-stop strategy worked perfectly, but his car was deemed to be underweight[/caption]

AFP

Lewis Hamilton was handed the race win in his place[/caption]

The car had initially been found to be compliant with the minimum weight of 798kg but 2.8 litres of fuel were then removed. 

Russell’s luck has gone from bad to worse after he ran out of fuel in qualifying at the  Hungarian Grand Prix leaving him starting in p17. 

He was also forced to retire his car in Silverstone in the race before that due to a mechanical fault after securing pole. 

Lewis Hamilton inherited the win, while McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri was promoted into second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third. 

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: “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 was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.”

AFP

Lewis Hamilton took the win after Russell’s disqualification, continuing his return to form since Barcelona[/caption]

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Hamilton had been left seething with his team for insisting on pitting him while giving Russell the green-light for a one-stop. 

The seven-time world champion, who was on fresher tyres, was snapping at the heels of his teammate by half a second until the very end.

Hamilton aimed a dig at his team after the race for calling him too early for both his pit-stops.

He said: “George wasn’t really in my race for most of it. And so if the strategy had been right, he wouldn’t have been in my race.

“So we wouldn’t have been having that but it’s great that at the end we do have cars that are competing.

“It is what it is. I’ll move forward. I’ll go into my break and have a good time.

“You have to put the faith in the people you work with. I put my faith in my strategists, I should be able to lean on them.

“Did I know I was at risk of getting one stopped by my teammate? They didn’t tell me that.”

Mercedes have now won three of the last four races in what is Hamilton’s last season before his move to Ferrari.

But they were nowhere to be seen in qualifying as George slumped into seventh and Hamilton secured fourth, but have now won three of the last four races.

Hamilton has certainly got his mojo back though and enjoyed a blistering start, overtaking Sergio Perez on the first-lap.

The British 39-year-old then eased past his new Ferrari teammate for next season Leclerc and into the lead on lap three.

Lando Norris, who is second in the drivers championship, put a major dent in his chances of dethroning Max Verstappen as a string of small mistakes cost him.

The McLaren man suffered another miserable start as he slipped from fourth into seventh.

By lap 22 Verstappen was battling with his old pal Norris, having bulldozed into fourth from 11th.

Norris had a go at overtaking the Dutchman into the final chicane of lap 24 but locked up and veered off the track.

He said: “I just need it to reset. I’ve given away a lot of points over the last four races, just because of stupid stuff. Mistakes and bad starts.”

Russell led the charge with eight laps to go but Hamilton was chipping away at his teammate in second.

Piastri danced around the outside of Leclerc to take third-place as he trailed Hamilton by five seconds on lap 36.

Russell, Hamilton and Piastri were separated by a whisker in the closing laps and crossed the finish line nose to tail.

It was a welcome sight at a track which has been so used to Verstappen’s dominance.