The FIA verdict on the Belgian Grand Prix is in! The Spa circuit bore witness to an epic fight between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell during the last stages of the race. Without Mercedes intervening between them, the two teammates went at it for the Grand Prix victory that initially went to Russell. Even after taking the lead in the race early on, Lewis Hamilton lost the first position due to a 2-pit stop strategy. However, the joy of winning his second Belgian GP was short-lived for Russell, as he was disqualified for not sticking to the FIA rules in Spa.

George Russell refused to go into the pits even when his team called on him. Confident with his tire management skills, the young Briton soared to victory by valiantly defending his place against Hamilton who was on much fresher tires. But, according to FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer, Russell’s car did not adhere to the regulations that specify that the F1 cars should have a minimum weight of 798 kg.

As per Mercedes’ legality documents, they had weighed the car and found it to be 798 kg. However, the FIA drained the fuel from George Russell’s #63 racecar and weighed it again. This time, the weight came to be 796.5 kg. Due to a 1.5 kg deficit from the required value, Russell’s car was declared illegal, as it violated the rules in Article 4.1 of FIA F1 Technical Regulations. Lewis Hamilton, who came second at the Belgian GP, eventually won the race.

Lewis Hamilton was inching closer to his second Grand Prix victory this year, but Russell snatched it away from him with wonderful tire management skills. However, with Russell’s car being found illegal, the 7-time World Champion had the last laugh.

What did Hamilton earlier say about the race that initially worked out in Russell’s favor because of no intervention from Mercedes?

Lewis Hamilton made a shocking confession to Oscar Piastri after the Belgian GP

Both the Mercedes racers as well as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri performed a masterful show at the Belgian GP. As the three podium holders went into the cooldown room after the race, Lewis found himself alone with Piastri for a bit. At that time, he made a shocking admission that held Mercedes responsible for poor race strategy. The 39-year-old said that his tires were working fine at all the stints when his team asked him to pit for fresher sets.

Being a racer with 104 wins (now 105), Hamilton knows a thing or two about tire management. But he valued his team’s orders by going into the pits for fresh tires despite feeling good about the ones he was already running on. George Russell felt his tires were fine too, and he refused to listen to Mercedes, which meant that he did not lose the average time of 22 seconds that a pitstop costs every racer and ended up winning the Belgian GP, however, only to be disqualified later.