Faux 1-2 finish for Mercedes after race in Spa-Francorchamps
- pitwallstories
- Jul 30, 2024
- 6 min read
How George Russell's disqualification cost him his third victory in his career and therefore handed the first place trophy to teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Spa-Francorchamps has been described countless times as one of the most awaited races in the F1 calendar, that everyone wants to attend. So the pressure on the drivers becomes heavier every season.
Located in the picturesque Ardennes forest of Belgium, this circuit is renowned for its challenging yet intimidating turns but also for its beautiful scenery full of history and legacy left there by the most famous drivers of the past.
This year as well, while the engines were roaring and the excitement was building up, expectations promised the public a thrilling race in what could have gone down in a dramatic showdown.
Leclerc back on top
Saturday’s qualifying session already started off with a wary awareness on the grid, which was Max Verstappen’s 10 place grid penalty, received after the Hungarian GP.
The current world champion managed to bring back the power of his RedBull, setting fastest lap on the circuit but because of the penalty he had to drop down to eleventh position for Sunday’s start. Surprisingly, Charles Leclerc was then handed the title of polesitter, having arrived second, ahead of the other RedBull driver Checo Perez.
Both McLaren cars didn’t entirely seem like themselves, especially after the performances in Hungary, securing fifth and sixth position for the belgian race. Moreover George Russell’s Mercedes seemed to have struggled a bit during quali. In fact, not calculating Verstappen’s penalty yet, he only achieved a seventh starting place for the race, against his teammate Lewis Hamilton who was going to start off from fourth.
Contrary to his teammate, Carlos Sainz only managed to secure himself an eighth position for the start on Sunday because after putting on a new set of inters, he struggled a lot with the warm up and grip of the car, not giving him enough time to set a lap time on the circuit.
Moving on and looking at the remaining positions on the starting grid, only one of the Aston Martins found itself in the top ten with driver Fernando Alonso ahead of Esteban Ocon, thus completing the race start for the following day.
A heartbreaking race on Sunday
A strong start from polesitter Charles Leclerc as the Belgian Grand Prix is set in motion. He manages to keep the first position as a lot of action displays behind his back. Against every expectation, Lando Norris struggled after the start, dropping down a few positions and then trying to get past Carlos Sainz but only ending going wide into the chicane and in doing so allowing Sainz to take back the position.
The Kemmel straight set the stage for the first important overtake of the race as Lewis Hamilton gained first position after using DRS to get past Leclerc. The monegasque fought back without succeeding but the race was still very long as we were only in the third lap.
By the conclusion of lap 3, Zhou Guanyu’s car showed problems on track, slowing down very quickly, as the driver tried to head back into the pit lane but he was a very long way from home yet. This problem then resulted in a hydraulic issue, which then caused the retirement of the car, the same way as it had happened to George Russell during his home GP.
The race went on and an interesting DRS train started to form itself starting from Leclerc, all the way down to Yuki Tsunoda in eighteenth position, as the drivers were taking care of their tyres and thus not forming larger gaps between each other.
Eventually, some sort of larger gap appeared during lap 9 as Alonso was finding it hard to keep up with Verstappen, driving away from him with every second.
It seemed like the entire race in Spa had been a challenge for the drivers to nurse their tyre compound, most of them applying different pit stops strategies and already starting to pit from lap 10, drivers like Albon, Sergeant, and Ricciardo who started off with softs, immediately giving the driver a hard time adjusting to the track.
As they pitted, drivers from the front-runner group also started considering a first stop. Hamilton wanted to get out of the possibility of being undercut by Leclerc but eventually drove into the garage on lap 12 because of the awareness that tyre life on this circuit is fondamental.
A different story for his teammate Russell who, contrary to him, had pitted a lap before, coming out behind Tsunoda but having Verstappen in that same gap. Now an opportunity for McLaren to play a good strategy game presented itself as Norris took second position after Leclerc went into the pits, allowing Sainz to become new race leader.
A lot has happened in the first laps and even more seemed to come.
Norris was eventually called into the pits later but was undercut by Verstappen who eagerly fought for the highest position, especially after Sainz seemed to have had a moment off track and into the gravel that had cut his lead hugely.
Almost halfway into the race, the race leader was then called to box for mediums and later managed to drive back out behind Norris. Russell in the meantime had overtaken Perez, allowing Verstappen to take advantage of his DRS train.
Really really good and interesting strategic battles went on in the front of the race but not to forget the back. There, Sergeant was caught in a battle with Ricciardo, resulting in him being successful and now chasing down Tsunoda to get closer to the points zone.
Returning back up again, Leclerc attempted an undercut move by pitting in lap 26 and then coming out behind his teammate. Leclerc’s move was more of a bait for Mercedes to take who then responded with a call for Hamilton to box, allowing then Oscar Piastri to take the lead of the belgian race.
The title of race leader was quickly passed from the aussie driver to a british one as George Russell took the lead by the end of lap 32. He was still the only driver yet to pit a second time but by what could be heard from his team radio, he wanted to go for a one-stop strategy for this race.
At this point though, there was a very heavy question mark on the Mercedes team who were currently expecting a 1-2 finish because Russell was leading the race but with a tyre life of much less laps than his teammate, since Hamilton had a newer compound. Were we about to witness something similar with McLaren in Hungary?
The race was slowly coming to an end but surprises were still possible. Piastri managed to overtake Leclerc for third and in doing so had a clear vision before him to chase down Hamilton.
With only four laps to go an interesting fight seemed to have captured Verstappen, Leclerc and Norris as they all fought for the position after Piastri had driven away from them up the straights of the Spa circuit.
Eventually, when only two laps remained, Hamilton thought it best not to take any risks while his teammate in first position was nursing his battery carefully, at the same time trying to keep Piastri at bay, slowly reaching Hamilton.
The final lap was the stage for a few other actions from the possible podium drivers but finally it was inevitable that the rightful winner of the Belgium Grand Prix was George Russell.
He happily jumped into the arms of his team after having fought this race wonderfully and completely deserving the third win in his career. A celebration that was abruptly interrupted by horrible news that silenced the paddock celebrations after the race had ended.
“Breaking: George Russell disqualified from Belgian GP”
The reason? Underweight car.
It all seemed too good to be true for the British driver who had to watch this phenomenal win being taken away from him. But despite the disqualification, the Mercedes team has had a lot of positives to look at after the weekend, as team principal Toto Wolff said. They still had a 1-2 finish and probably had one of the fastest cars out on track.
Mixed feelings for today's result. Obviously happy to get the win but I feel for George and it's disappointing for the team not to get the 1-2. A lot of positives to take from today, though. At the start of the weekend, we didn't expect to be at the front or the pace we had, so it's great to see just how much progress has been made and that we are in the fight. We take all these positives with us into the break and will come back a stronger team ready to keep the momentum going.
Lewis Hamilton via Instagram on Spa-Francorchamps win
And so it starts like this the summer break of the 2024 Formula One season, with a curious touch as to how the season will unfold for the following nine races before the big finale in Abu Dhabi.
Stay tuned and wait for more!
Written by Fran
