Fate hands Hamilton his lost Spa win back

Almost 16 years ago, Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag first at the end of a heart-stopping final sequence of laps to win the Belgian Grand Prix for the first time in his Formula 1 career.

Or so he thought. Two hours after stepping off the podium, trophy in hand, the McLaren driver was informed victory was no longer his.

Deemed to have cut the Bus Stop chicane and gained an advantage while battling Kimi Raikkonen for the lead three laps from the finish, the stewards handed Hamilton a 25-second hammer blow which cost him victory, handing it to his championship rival Felipe Massa.

A decade-and-a-half later, the ripple effects from that single incident can still be felt throughout modern Formula 1. It was the first in a series of controversial incidents that marred the conclusion of that 2008 title fight – legal battles are still being fought over another. But what happened at Spa arguably started a shift in the culture of the sport where interventions by the stewards went from a rarity to a regularity.

Despite over 100 victories in his grand prix career, the loss of that win in 2008 would forever be a point of frustration for Hamilton. But in 2024, when that day was nothing but a distant memory, the racing gods returned the win they took away all those years ago. Only this time, his own team mate would be the one to pay forfeit.

Mercedes were expected by many to be stronger through Spa’s flowing curves than they had been the previous weekend around the super-sized karting track that is the Hungaroring. But Red Bull’s resurgence had seen Max Verstappen return to the top of the times in a drizzly qualifying session, while Sergio Perez had even backed up his team mate with third-fastest time.

Hamilton had beaten the two McLarens, which dominated the previous Sunday, to fourth on the grid. But with Verstappen paying for a fifth power unit with a 10-place grid penalty, Charles Leclerc had picked up pole in his place, while Hamilton had moved up to third.

Spa had gone from soggy to sunny by the time cars lined up on the grid for the start of the 14th round of the championship. With low downforce and low grip expected from the semi-repaved circuit, no one was entertaining the thought of anything but a two-stop strategy. Almost everyone had opted to start the race on the medium compound; among the top 10, only the seventh-placed Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jnr was on hards.

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For the third successive Belgian Grand Prix, a Ferrari lined up on pole position. But would it still be leading by the time it reached Les Combes?

Yes, was the answer. A year ago Perez had been able to slipstream Leclerc up the hill last year to seize the lead by the end of the Kemmel Straight, but this time Hamilton ensured the Red Bull driver would not get that same opportunity. Instead, Hamilton jumped to the inside of him on the approach to La Source, before winning the race to Eau Rouge to claim second. Behind, Lando Norris left so much room for team mate Oscar Piastri to the inside that he introduced his outside tyres to the gravel in the process, dropping behind George Russell and Sainz as a result.

The top five reached Les Combes almost as a single unit, Leclerc emerging with his lead intact, from Hamilton, Perez, Piastri and Russell in fifth. Verstappen gained a modest two places by the end of the opening lap to sit in ninth, before driving around Fernando Alonso at the start of the second lap for eighth – meaning only his seven main rivals now sat ahead of him.

Hamilton waited until the start of lap three to make his move on Leclerc. But despite the DRS activation point at the exit of Raidillon being 75m further down the circuit than recent years, the shorter zone was little benefit to the Ferrari and Hamilton breezed through into the lead before reaching the end of the straight. But once out in front, Hamilton did not take off in the clean air. Instead, the top eight cars belonging to the top four teams all remained covered by less than ten seconds – all caring for their Pirellis over outright pace.

So it remained until the end of lap ten. While several of the midfield runners had stopped by then, Russell was the first of the leaders to pit, receiving the call as he prepared to hit the brakes for the final chicane. Around 23 seconds later, Russell returned to the track just behind Tsunoda on hard tyres. While he did not know it at the time, he would end up having to make his new rubber last all 34 remaining laps of the race.

Verstappen followed Russell into the pits, Red Bull having an eye on getting ahead of Norris. At the end of the next lap, Hamilton, Perez and Piastri were all in. Although Russell had only had seven kilometres of benefit from his fresh hards, that was enough for him to beat the McLaren out of the pit lane. However, Piastri immediately tucked into his slipstream and popped out to pass Mercedes in the DRS zone approaching Les Combes.

The next lap, another place gained by Piastri. This time Perez, on new mediums, was the victim, moving Piastri up to what was likely to be a net third position behind Leclerc, who had also stopped. Sainz was now leading, with Norris also yet to stop behind. Despite a trip across the gravel at Stavelot following a snap of oversteer, on lap 15, costing him two seconds, Sainz stayed out while Norris decided now was the time to pit. But as a result of allowing almost all of his rivals to pit before him, Norris down to eighth place by the team he rejoined with fresh hards.

Sainz opted to remain out until just before half-distance at the end of lap 20. That put Hamilton back in the lead, but his advantage over Leclerc was still the same as it had been before their respective stops. Behind, Perez was struggling to pull away from Russell, despite his softer tyres. It did not take long for the Mercedes to pass him.

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After the first day on running on Friday, many drivers reported tyre wear being far worse than they had expected – likely exacerbated by the mix of new and old asphalt. But teams were finding that the tyres they removed from their cars were in a much better condition than they had expected. Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington reported that “wear on the previous set looks good”, implying that he could likely afford to lean more on his tyres if he wanted.

But even if those in the battle at the front wanted to push more, the dirty air effect remained their biggest limitation. Norris’s pursuit of Verstappen was frustrated by a lock-up for the McLaren driver into the final chicane, forcing him to miss it, while his team mate Piastri was struggling to close up on Leclerc ahead of hm.

On lap 26, Piastri was freed when Leclerc was brought in for a second stop for hard tyres, immediately setting his personal best lap of the race. When Hamilton covered the Ferrari at the end of the next lap, Piastri continued to find more time, posting a new fastest lap of the race on his 15-lap old tyres.

“I was amazed at how much difference the dirty air made today,” he later explained. “When Lewis and Charles pitted for the second stop, I think I went like one second faster just because I had clean air.”

Despite their unleashed driver’s pace on his well-used hard tyres, McLaren were always intending to bring Piastri in. Mercedes were also planning to pit Russell, but facing the prospect of likely falling to seventh with a risk of being caught and passed by Perez, Russell was eager to zig while the others zagged.

“Think about the one-stop,” he suggested to race engineer Marcus Dudley, who did not seem interested at first.

“Now, George, we need to give it everything we’ve got to keep up this gap to Perez and we’re going to have Norris an undercut threat soon,” Dudley informed him.

“Are you sure these tyres won’t go to the end?,” Russell challenged him.

“They will,” Dudley conceded, “but we think it’s quicker to stop.”

But Russell was adamant. “At the moment, they’re just going quicker and quicker, the tyres. I’m still going green, mate.” Afterwards Russell confirmed the lap time gain mostly came on the new sections of track.

Russell’s pleas were starting to sway his team. Dudley let him know Mercedes were “discussing” his proposal. But as it became clear he would lose multiple positions if he did stop, it was starting to become worth the gamble.

“And George, just confirming you’re happy to stay out?,” Dudley double-checked. “Yes!” Russell affirmed before his engineer had even finished speaking.

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While Mercedes were now committing to a one-stop, McLaren still agreed that new tyres would be quicker over the 14 remaining laps. Piastri was brought in from the lead and told to be “accurate on the marks.” In this he failed, and his front jack man went for a wild ride as Piastri ran long.

“I just went in a bit hot really,” Piastri later admitted. “It wasn’t my finest moment. I don’t think it really cost much in the scheme of things.”

A 4.4 second stop was far from ideal, but he still rejoined where he would have done, ahead of the Red Bulls but a couple of seconds behind Leclerc in fourth. Russell was now in the lead, but despite setting his personal best lap of the race in clean air, Hamilton was six tenths faster than him on 16-lap younger hards. Hamilton was told had six tenths a lap to take out of his team mate to catch him before the end of the race.

“I was just watching the TV screens every lap, down after Eau Rouge, and just looking at the gap every single lap,” Russell explained after the race. “And they just weren’t catching me as quick as I expected. And my lap times were just improving every single lap.”

While Hamilton was slowly reeling Russell in, Piastri was the fastest car on track by a wide margin. He hunted down Leclerc before sweeping around the outside of the Ferrari with a bold move at Les Combes to move up to third. But getting by Leclerc so quickly gave him eight laps in which to try and chase down the Mercedes ahead.

Hamilton was eating into Russell’s lead ahead, taking almost a second a lap out of his team mate until he was just outside of DRS range with five laps remaining. Despite looking at a potential one-two, no team orders were issued by Mercedes.

“Think about strat-13,” Bonnington suggested to Hamilton in his pursuit of the leader. “Just make sure you give each other plenty of space.”

But despite getting within a second and earning the benefit of DRS, Russell was managing to keep well out of reach of his team mate when he needed to most, along the Kemmel Straight. Piastri was also closing, taking more than a second a lap out of Russell.

“That’s a good lap, Oscar,” Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard encouraged him. “Hamilton’s catching Russell ahead. There’s going to be action ahead – we want to be there.”

But just as Piastri had discovered how much clean air could give him earlier in the race, both he and Hamilton were now realising that those final car lengths would be exponentially more challenging to make up.

“I definitely thought he was going to be very close,” Russell later admitted. “But equally, I recognise how difficult it is to overtake here. We’re all running these skinny rear wings – the drag isn’t substantial.”

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Hamilton tried but could not find a way to get tucked up in the slipstream of the other Mercedes. At the start of the final lap, all three were covered by under two seconds. Hamilton’s exit from La Source was not good enough to get him the momentum he needed to make a move and now it looked as though Russell was about to pull off the great escape. Hamilton was not close enough through Blanchimont to dare dream of a last-gasp lunge and Russell exited the chicane to power over the line and complete one of the great heists in recent grand prix history.

At every other circuit on the calendar, drivers complete a victory lap after taking the chequered flag. Drivers invariably use this opportunity to drive over the discarded marbles of rubber from the 80 tyres which have pounded the surface for an hour and a half.

This doesn’t happen at Spa, the longest track on the calendar, so cars are sent backwards up the pit lane immediately after the finish. While Russell pumped his fists in delight on his way to parc ferme, a defeated Hamilton said nothing over his radio.

“It was such a difficult race,” Russell said. “We spoke so much this morning about the two-stop, the three-stop. But suddenly the tyres, the car felt really, really good.

“I was looking at the gap to Lewis and the rate he was catching me and I just thought ‘there’s no reason why we can’t stay out here and do this one stop and try and make it work’.”

Hamilton had done almost everything he could have to earn the victory, all but find a way past his team mate at the end. Although happy to have been in a position to secure a one-two for his team, Hamilton’s disappointment at his team mate out-foxing him – and getting the chance to to begin with – was evident.

“George did a fantastic job today,” Hamilton conceded. “A fantastic effort to go the one-stop.

“It was pretty smooth sailing, to be honest. I was fully in control. I had plenty of pace and tyres and just didn’t end up as planned.”

Piastri’s unrivalled pace at the end of the race had not been enough for him to find a way by the Mercedes at the death. But on a day when Mercedes showed how strong they still were, Piastri was satisfied with his efforts.

“I think we executed a great race, had a quick car and ultimately just didn’t put it in the right position in qualifying yesterday,” he said. “Given where we started, very happy. But, ultimately, I think there was a bit more potential this weekend.”

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Leclerc’s fourth place in what was likely the fourth-fastest car of the weekend was an excellent achievement – as was Verstappen’s climb to fifth place from 11th. Norris was naturally displeased to have fallen two places to sixth, with Sainz in seventh a reasonable result and Perez dropping from second to eighth anything but. Fernando Alonso also successfully executed a one-stop to claim ninth, while Esteban Ocon showed Hamilton and Piastri how it was supposed to be done by catching and passing Daniel Ricciardo for the final point in the closing laps.

As Russell climbed up on the top step of the podium, he was rightfully thrilled to have pulled off one of the best strategic victories in recent memory as well as holding off his seven-times world champion team mate for a win for the second time in his career. But while he celebrated, fate was brewing a bitter tonic for him underneath the podium as the FIA’s scrutineers began their standard checks.

Just like Hamilton in 2008, Russell learned two hours after taking the chequered flag that all that effort in pursuit of a hard-earned triumph may about to come to nothing. At 6:48pm, the inevitable became official. Stewards’ document number 44 of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend confirmed the formal disqualification of Russell for his car failing to reach the minimum weight limit – meaning that car number 44 was now the winner.

Russell’s victory and Mercedes’ one-two were no more. While Mercedes at least kept the win with Hamilton, it was a cruel blow, reducing one of the most impressive tactical moves of the season to a footnote. Piastri was promoted to second, while Leclerc gained a podium finish as reward for his own impressive efforts.

For Hamilton, his 105th grand prix victory, and second in three rounds, was the first of his career he had inherited hours after the race had ended – as well as the first post-race disqualification of a winner in three decades. But although he never would have wanted his team mate to be sacrificed for it, at least Hamilton could feel as though he had been returned that win he had lost all those years ago.