George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium, after taking the checkered flag first, elevating his teammate Lewis Hamilton to his second win in the last three races. Hamilton ended a 56-race losing streak on his home track of Silverstone two rounds ago.
Russell utilized a one-stop strategy and narrowly edged Hamilton by half a second.
The win would have been Russell’s third career victory. He last visited victory lane at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, one week before Hamilton’s win.
Russell’s car weighed in at 798 kilograms, but after 2.8 liters of fuel were removed, he was found to be 1.5 kilograms, about 3.3 pounds, under the limit.
Formula 1 issued a statement detailing the infraction.
“The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled,” the statement read.
“The car was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.
“As this is 1.5 kg 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.”
After consideration by the stewards, Russell was disqualified, which elevated Hamilton to victory, last week’s winner Oscar Piastri to second, and Charles Leclerc to third.
“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly,” reported a separate statement. “The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.
“The stewards determine that Article 4.1 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations has been breached and therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement needs to be applied.”
Team principal Toto Wolff said the team was prepared to accept the ruling.
“We have to take it on the chin if the stewards decide against ourselves,” said Wolff before the disqualification was announced. “It is what it is, the mistake has happened.
“We have to learn from that. As a team there are more positives to take, obviously for George it’s a massive blow.”
After the announced disqualification, Wolff said the most likely cause for the weight loss was massive tire degradation due to Russell’s one-stop strategy.
“It is, of course, disappointing for the team to lose the one-two, but there are lots of positives to take away from today,” race winner Hamilton said. “I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races.”
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