George Russell cannot enjoy his Formula 1 victory in Belgium for long. His Mercedes is too light, as an investigation shows. The Englishman is severely punished.
The Englishman George Russell was disqualified after his Formula 1 victory in Belgium, thereby unwittingly helping his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to his 105th career victory. Russell’s car with the number 63 was one and a half kilograms too light after the obligatory weighing. The minimum weight of a Formula 1 car is 798 kilograms, but Russell’s car only weighed 796.5 kilograms. The race stewards therefore disqualified the car from the classification.
“During the hearing, the team representative confirmed that the measurement was correct and that all necessary procedures were carried out correctly. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that this was a genuine error on the part of the team,” the stewards said in their statement.
Russell thus lost his third Formula 1 victory after he had masterfully won the last Grand Prix before the summer break with a brave one-stop strategy. The first to benefit was Hamilton, who finished just 0.5 seconds behind his teammate. McLaren driver Oscar Piastri moved up to second place ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.
World champion Max Verstappen, who had already started the Belgian Grand Prix with the burden of a grid penalty, moved up to fourth place ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren.
Source: Stern
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