George Russell won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on Sunday holding off his teammate Lewis Hamilton in a stunning Mercedes 1-2.
McLaren’s Aussie driver Oscar Piastri came home in third after an extremely nervous moment in the pits (more below), overtaking pole-sitter Charles Leclerc of Ferrari late in the race. Leclerc finished fourth.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who started in 11th, finished fifth extending his championship lead over the second McLaren of Lando Norris who lost ground from the start line and finished one place further back.
Russell began the race in sixth place and hit the front after opting for a one-stop pit strategy which saw him nursing his second set of tyres for 34 of the race’s 44 laps. Hamilton had tyres 16 laps younger and put plenty of pressure on his younger teammate, but Russell was nerveless to hand Mercedes a third win from the last four races – a stunning turnaround after a 19-month winless streak.
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“We definitely didn’t predict this win in our strategy meeting this morning,” said Russell for whom this was a third Grand Prix win.
“One-two for the team was awesome and what a way to go to the break.”
Red Bull’s under-fire Sergio Perez, who started in second to end a dismal run of qualifying results, could not back it up in the race, finishing eighth. He was leapfrogged by Hamilton at the start and slipped backwards as the race wore on.
Daniel Ricciardo finished 11th after lining up 13th on the grid, narrowly missing out on a points finish, but doing his hopes of replacing Perez no harm – especially since teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who started last, could only finish 17th.
Verstappen leads the championship race with 275 points, 78 clear of Norris. Red Bull lead the constructors’ championship 42 points ahead of McLaren.
Formula One now heads into a summer break with the next race in Zandvoort for the Dutch GP on August 25.
PIASTRI’S SCARY MOMENT
Being a jack-man in a F1 pit team is one of the scariest jobs in sport, and Piastri showed exactly why after a terrifying incident that could have ended in disaster.
Piastri locked his right front tyre as he came into the pits, stopping well past the front of the pit box and slamming into the front jack-man, who showed remarkable strength to hoist the car properly and avoid injury.
It resulted in a 4.4 second stop, but Piastri crucially just managed to stay in front of Verstappen when he emerged from the pits – a key moment that helped secure his impressive podium drive.
Source Agencies
