Drama at Belgium GP: Disqualified winner, Hamilton claims victory

The 2024 Belgium Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday, July 28, was the most entertaining race this year, with sensation after sensation including the winner being disqualified, something that has not happened since 1994.

In the qualifying sessions, multiple drivers were on the mark in one of the most competitive sessions to secure pole (P1) on the grid; then, sensationally, George Russell was disqualified after winning the race.

Mercedes driver Russell, who opted for a one stop race strategy, was the first across the line in the main race at the Spa track, but during post-race scrutiny, stewards noticed his car was 1.5kg underweight and was therefore disqualified from the race.

Russell becomes the first F1 race winner to subsequently be disqualified since 1994.

The disqualification elevated the second-placed fellow Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton, to his 105th F1 GP win.

Hamilton was comfortably the fastest on the Spa track on Sunday, even with a two-stop strategy, which was quite surprising for the Mercedes team considering, during the early-week action, they were not in contention.

Punters were able to secure $3 about a Lewis Hamilton podium finish, as recommended in our Belgian GP F1 betting preview.

Hamilton was paying $10 to win the Belgium GP with the best sports betting sites after qualification.

Russell himself was behind the masterful decision to adopt the one-stop strategy when teammate Hamilton pitted for new tyres on lap 26.

Russell asked the team to “think about the one stop” when he realised his tyres were not degrading as much as expected.

Russell ran on the hard compound tyres for a whopping 34 laps, with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff calling him the “tyre whisperer”.

In the final stages of the race, Russell was somehow able to defend against teammate Hamilton to ensure the victory and complete the one-two finish for Mercedes.

In early F1 betting markets, Russell had been paying close to $16 to win the Spa GP at the best online bookmakers.

Belgium GP main race pole sitter Charles Leclerc was hoping for a much faster Ferrari on Sunday, but in the end he was quite disappointed with the pace of his car.

Leclerc admitted post-race, “We were the fourth-fastest car out there today”, after the surprising race pace from the Mercedes duo.

Spa Grand Prix’s biggest winners

• Lewis Hamilton
  Hamilton’s flying race start saw him overtaking Sergio Perez on turn one and set up the rest of his race from there. He was the fastest car on the grid and arguably deserved the victory, even before the disqualification of Russell.
• Oscar Piastri
  An incredible drive from the recent debut winner gives Piastri another podium this year after gaining finishing officially second. Piastri was by far the faster McLaren all weekend and was able to convert that pace into another podium finish.
• Max Verstappen
  Starting from P11 after his grid penalty, Verstappen was hoping for a repeat of 2023 where we saw him gain victory despite starting from P10. Verstappen was very fast in the early stages of the race, however, after four laps he got stuck in a DRS train with two other drivers. The Dutchman recovered to finish in fourth.

Spa Grand Prix’s biggest losers

• Sergio Perez
  After a very strong qualifying, the Red Bull driver’s hopes for keeping his seat were looking strong and he only needed a solid performance on race day. But Perez lacked pace all race on Sunday and fell to P7 from P2 during the race. A race in which could very well have decided his future at Red Bull Racing.
• Lando Norris
  Norris has to improve on his starts to be a serious F1 Driver Championship contender. Norris went off at turn one with a simple understeer which was clearly an unforced driver error. The problem saw Norris lose three positions in the race, which the set him an impossible task. Norris ended the race in P5, just behind rival Verstappen.
• Aston Martin
  Aston Martin have been missing all year in the points rankings with few appearances in top 10, and race day pace behind that of other teams like Red Bull junior team, Visa Cash App (VCARB), and Alpine. Fernando Alonso was able to secure points, whereas Lance Stroll could not push forward as they had hoped.

Spa Grand Prix’s biggest surprise

• George Russell
  Almost all race he was expected to finish around P5, even with the one stop strategy. Regardless of the disqualification, it was a stellar decision to continue on the hard tyre compound which led Russell to P1 and his third win, albeit briefly.

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