F1 Belgian GP: Russell long-game strategy snatches win from Hamilton in Mercedes 1-2

George Russell beat Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1’s 2024 Belgian Grand Prix that the seven-time champion had dominated, as Russell’s surprise one-stop strategy paid off, with Oscar Piastri third for McLaren.

In a race made engaging from start to finish thanks to varying tyre strategy efforts, Max Verstappen recovered to fifth after his engine change grid penalty.

In doing so he held off distant title rival Lando Norris, while on a critical day for his career Sergio Perez fell from second to finish eighth and well adrift of the front running back, as one of his would-be replacements at Red Bull – Daniel Ricciardo – came close to scoring the race’s final point for RB.

Charles Leclerc led away from pole as Hamilton immediately jumped from third to run alongside Perez into the first corner before sealing second on the downhill run to Eau Rouge, which in turn allowed Leclerc to stay clear in first up the Kemmel straight.

But the Ferrari driver’s lead lasted only two laps of the 44, as Hamilton quickly closed in and then moved to the lead with a DRS blast up to Les Combes.

Hamilton gradually dropped Leclerc across the first of three stints in the two-stop affair for most of the frontrunners, while behind the different tyre tactics brought other drivers into focus at various points.

After Norris had lost three places on the opening lap by dipping his left-rear into the gravel at the exit of La Source, he soon had Verstappen roaring up behind after the world champion had quickly cleared the midfielders he had started behind in 11th - this the result of a 10 place gird penalty for adding a fifth engine into his pool for the season.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, the rest of the field at the start

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Ahead of this pair was Carlos Sainz, who the only one of the leaders to have started on the hard tyres with the rest on mediums, and the Spaniard was able to hang on in front of Norris after the McLaren driver had botched an overtake in the early laps before both cycled to the front as Hamilton, Leclerc and co pitted for the first time at the one-quarter phase.

Here Russell, who had gained significantly with a good start from behind Norris on the grid, was in the thick of the action with Piastri – undercutting him at these pitstops, then getting immediately repassed and having to watch the Australian head up the road fight by Perez to run a net third.

In the second stint, Norris eventually pitted and came out behind Verstappen, before quickly erasing a six-second gap to the Dutchman and in the process undercutting Sainz, while Hamilton again grew his small lead to Leclerc around getting the lead back once Sainz had come in to take the mediums on lap 20.

At this stage, Perez in fourth was the only other driver on that rubber, with it becoming apparent from Sainz’s strong, long opening stint on the hards that this was the race’s best tyre.

As Hamilton and Leclerc looked settled at the front and with Piastri a chunk behind, Perez’s pace fell away on the mediums and Russell was able to pressure him and then get by at Les Combes just before the halfway point.

Red Bull then pitted Perez out of Verstappen’s way, with Norris right behind, and this meant the middle stint became shorter than expected as Ferrari pitted Leclerc to cover Perez on lap 25, with Hamilton coming in next time by.

Piastri showed his pace in clean air at the front for a while but then erred in sliding long in his pitbox and slamming into his front jackman – who stayed on his feet impressively – when he came in on lap 30.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

By this stage, new leader Russell had already asked Mercedes to think about the one-stop, which it left him on as his pace was holding up even with Hamilton surging on his new hards.

Russell’s lead at this point was around seven seconds and although Hamilton was closing by huge chunks each time, by the time the seven-time world champion caught up in the closing stages, he could not find a way by and Russell hung on to score a third F1 career GP win.

The final tour was made more tense by Piastri’s closing threat from behind – his pace so searing in the final stint he had caught and passed Leclerc (needing two attempts to get by in successive laps at Les Combes that cost him important time at the end to Hamilton).

In the end, just 1.1s cover the top three, with Leclerc fading to 7.3s off from Piastri and Verstappen and Norris each respectively 0.6s further back in fifth and sixth.

They had had to pass Perez once they had made their second stops around the two-thirds mark, then Verstappen, running a second set of the unfavoured mediums given Red Bull’s remaining sets pre-race, defied Norris chasing with DRS to the flag.

Sainz’s out-of-kilter strategy meant he caught and passed Perez for seventh with five laps to go, before Red Bull pitted Perez for a third time to successfully chase the fastest lap bonus point.

Fernando Alonso took ninth for Aston Martin, while the overtaking-filled races for Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo ended with the Alpine ahead in 10th and not too far from Alonso at the finish.

The race’s only retirement was Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, who slowed with a hydraulics issue early on and shortly afterwards he stopped in the pits.

F1 Belgian GP Result

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	G. Russell Mercedes	63	44	1:19'57.040		231.181	1	25		Mercedes	Mercedes
2	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44	44	+0.526 1:19'57.566	0.526	231.156	2	18		Mercedes	Mercedes
3	O. Piastri McLaren	81	44	+1.173 1:19'58.213	0.647	231.125	2	15		McLaren	Mercedes
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	44	+8.549 1:20'05.589	7.376	230.770	2	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	44	+9.226 1:20'06.266	0.677	230.737	2	10		Red Bull	Red Bull
6	L. Norris McLaren	4	44	+9.850 1:20'06.890	0.624	230.707	2	8		McLaren	Mercedes
7	C. Sainz Ferrari	55	44	+19.795 1:20'16.835	9.945	230.231	2	6		Ferrari	Ferrari
8	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11	44	+43.195 1:20'40.235	23.400	229.118	3	5		Red Bull	Red Bull
9	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	44	+49.963 1:20'47.003	6.768	228.798	1	2		Aston Martin	Mercedes
10	E. Ocon Alpine	31	44	+52.552 1:20'49.592	2.589	228.676	2	1		Alpine	Renault
11	D. Ricciardo RB	3	44	+54.926 1:20'51.966	2.374	228.564	2			RB	Red Bull
12	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	44	+1'03.011 1:21'00.051	8.085	228.184	1			Aston Martin	Mercedes
13	A. Albon Williams	23	44	+1'03.651 1:21'00.691	0.640	228.154	2			Williams	Mercedes
14	P. Gasly Alpine	10	44	+1'04.365 1:21'01.405	0.714	228.120	2			Alpine	Renault
15	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20	44	+1'06.631 1:21'03.671	2.266	228.014	1			Haas	Ferrari
16	V. Bottas Sauber	77	44	+1'10.638 1:21'07.678	4.007	227.826	2			Sauber	Ferrari
17	Y. Tsunoda RB	22	44	+1'16.737 1:21'13.777	6.099	227.541	1			RB	Red Bull
18	L. Sargeant Williams	2	44	+1'26.057 1:21'23.097	9.320	227.107	2			Williams	Mercedes
19	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27	44	+1'28.833 1:21'25.873	2.776	226.978	2			Haas	Ferrari
dnf	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24	5	+39 Laps 11'00.351	39 Laps	190.240	1		Hydraulics	Sauber	Ferrari
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