A brilliant drive and a masterful
strategy combined to deliver George Russell’s third win of his F1 career. And
then it didn’t. Although Russell crossed the line in Spa in first place with
great jubilation his car failed the post-race scrutineering, and he was
disqualified from the results. It was a heavy blow to an otherwise stellar
outcome for Mercedes. Russell’s exclusion from the results moved Hamilton in
P1, Oscar Piastri into second, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into P3.
Leclerc inherited pole position
on Saturday from Max Verstappen who was demoted to eleventh, thanks to a
ten-place penalty for fitting a new combustion unit. In wet conditions, Leclerc
delivered a stunning lap against the grain of the weekend. At no point had
Ferrari seemed to be in the mix but he emerged from the pack, underlining the
marvellous one-lap pace he’s known for. Another surprise came in the form of
Checo Perez who started on the front-row of the grid. As the lights went out
Leclerc was able to maintain his lead as Perez and Hamilton scrapped for second
behind him. Hamilton dispatched of Perez with the aid of DRS and Ferrari’s lack
of pace came to the fore as Hamilton made quick work of Leclerc a few laps
later.
But what was evident early on was
that following another car simply destroyed the tyres. Neither McLaren was able
to make serious in-roads despite having the pace to challenge for the win. Both
Norris and Piastri were stuck behind other cars for the majority of the race.
Elsewhere, Verstappen had made some progress but it was nothing like the
memorable charges through the field of previous years. Similar to McLaren,
overtaking too wasn’t easy for Verstappen. Although the Red Bull driver close
the gap to Leclerc to within a second he was simply unable to overtake the
Ferrari for several laps. Similarly, Norris, after being undercut by
Verstappen, was not able to get close enough to overtake. As it were,
Verstappen was classified in fourth ahead of Norris in fifth.
Carlos Sainz was sixth for
Ferrari ahead of Checo Perez in seventh. Perez, who started second, faded
rather badly and seemed to have no defence against those behind. It does appear
that Red Bull had opted for a higher downforce setup. This aided them in the
middle sector of the lap but left Perez exposed on the long straights. A late
pitstop for the Mexican did net him an extra point for the fastest lap of the
race. Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were eighth and ninth while Daniel
Ricciardo scored the final point in tenth.
On the road George Russell did
absolutely everything right. He started sixth and kept pace with those in
front. Not only that he called the strategy perfectly. Russell has been known
to opt for the ‘hail Mary’ strategies in the past but they’ve never worked as
well as it did in Belgium. His decision to try and make a one-stop strategy
work meant that he completed more than three-quarters of the race on one set of
tyres. It was an exhibition of tyre management and defence against his
teammate, whose tyres were 50% newer.
However, post-race Russell’s car
was found to be 1.5 kgs underweight. As unfortunate as it may be the rules are
straightforward – if a car is found to be the incorrect weight it results in an
automatic disqualification. But what is 1.5 kgs in the greater scheme of
things? Probably not much. But if it were allowed it would create a slippery
slope for all F1 teams to take advantage of in the future. It is nevertheless
desperately unfortunate for Russell. The good news for Mercedes is they are
steadily finding their way into the mix for race wins. Given that Hamilton too
led a big part of the race, and finished second on the road, it underlines the
progress that Mercedes has made.
The Belgian grand prix marks the final race
before the summer shutdown. There are many decisions to be made on futures,
approaches to be re-assessed, and some relaxation to be had before it all kicks
off again in Zaandvoort at the end of August.
