George Russell narrowly beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton to a remarkable win on an unlikely one-stop strategy in the Belgian Grand Prix as Mercedes finished first and second to continue their impressive Formula 1 resurgence.
In a race in which other teams had been tipped to be the favourites after a rain-hit qualifying and a penalty for Max Verstappen had mixed up the top of the grid, it was Mercedes who emerged as the team to beat thanks to a storming start from third by Hamilton and then a bold strategy call by “tyre whisperer” Russell.
With long-time leader Hamilton stopping for tyres twice and Russell only once, the divergent strategies saw the Mercedes team-mates run first and second into the tense closing stages with the latter gaining track position but on tyres which were 16 laps older.
But Russell, who had called for the one-stop strategy midway through on team radio as he attempted to improve on what had been a distant fifth place, withstood the late sustained pressure from Hamilton to close out his third career win and second in the last four races.
Having gone 19 months without a win in F1, Mercedes have now won three of the last four races to revive a season which had been threatening to prove a huge disappointment.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took the final podium place in third just 1.1s behind Russell as the top three finished almost nose-to-nail across the line.
After a lap-one tussle with the eventual race winner, Piastri had also been ahead of Russell but, like Hamilton, stopped twice and so surrendered track position to the long-running Mercedes. The Hungarian GP victor’s hopes of consecutive race wins were further compromised at his second stop when he lost time by going long in his pit box.
On his return to the track, Piastri caught and passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the polesitter, for third late into the closing laps but ultimately ran out of time to go wheel-to-wheel with either of the Mercedes cars.
Lando Norris had again started ahead of Piastri but, again, left the first corner behind his team-mate after a mistake on the exit of La Source saw him lose ground.
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An eventful opening lap sees Lewis Hamilton overtake Sergio Perez for second place.
Undercut by the recovering Verstappen at the first stops, Norris couldn’t find a way back past his title rival despite appearing to have the quicker car with the Red Bull taking fifth and the McLaren sixth.
Verstappen therefore increases his title lead over Norris by two points to 78 heading into the summer break.
But with under-pressure Sergio Perez dropping from second on the grid to an eventual eighth behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s constructors’ title lead over McLaren has gone down again with the reigning champions’ advantage just 43 points.
Fernando Alonso was a hard-fought ninth for Aston Martin with Esteban Ocon beating RB’s Daniel Ricciardo the final point for Alpine after a strong weekend for the Frenchman.
More to follow…
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