George Russell has been disqualified from the results of the Belgian Grand Prix after his Mercedes was found to be underweight following the race. As a result, his teammate Lewis Hamilton has been promoted to the winner.
Russell had initially won the event by employing a one-stop strategy, carefully managing his hard tyres to reach the chequered flag and narrowly holding off Hamilton by half a second.
However, a Technical Delegate’s Report released after the race indicated that, although the car had initially met the minimum weight requirement of 798kg, the removal of 2.8 litres of fuel rendered it underweight.
The report then reads: “The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled.
“The car was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.
“As this is 1.5 kg below the minimum weight requested in TR Article 4.1, which also has to be respected at all times during the competition, I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration.”
After being referred to the stewards, it was confirmed that Russell had been disqualified from the race. As such, Hamilton is promoted to P1, while Oscar Piastri now takes P2 and Charles Leclerc moves up to P3.
A document released following the stewards' hearing stated: "During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.
"The stewards determine that Article 4.1 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations has been breached and therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement needs to be applied."
Speaking before the stewards’ verdict had been confirmed, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suggested that the team would accept the outcome, though acknowledged that it would be especially tough for Russell to take.
“We have to take it on the chin if the stewards decide against ourselves,” said Wolff. “It is what it is, the mistake has happened.”
The Team Principal went on to add: “We have to learn from that. As a team there are more positives to take, obviously for George it’s a massive blow.”
