Russell wins Belgian Grand Prix in Mercedes 1-2 finish
Mercedes' George Russell has taken victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after a gutsy late switch to a single stop strategy. Lewis Hamilton finished a very close second while McLaren's Oscar Piastri ended up third, less than a second behind the Mercedes duo.
The Belgian Grand Prix got underway in the best possible conditions with only a few light clouds preventing full on sunshine on the track.
Leclerc held on to pole while Perez soon realised Hamilton made the better better start. Perez moved right to try to defend but it was already too late. The duo went side by side through La Source and on to Eau Rouge where Perez backed out. Piastri took fourth place, followed by Russell, Sainz, Norris, Alonso, Albon and Verstappen.
After a flying start by Leclerc where he quickly took some advantage, Hamilton clearly cut that quickly through lap 2 and on the Kemmel straight of the third lap, Hamilton breezed past Leclerc.
By that time, Verstappen had passed Albon and Alonso and was all over the back of McLaren's Lando Norris. The latter was however in a DRS train led by Piastri, meaning Verstappen was having a much more difficult time to get past than before.
On lap 8 it was Hulkenberg to pit first, switching to a fresh set of hard tyres. Zhou was the only one to enter the pits before that time, but for him it was to retire from the race due to technical issues.
Several more drivers pitted the next few laps and soon set the timing sheets alight, triggering stops from the top 10 as well. Russell and Verstappen were first to pit, both taking on hard tyres. They rejoined the track in 12th and 14th position with Tsunoda sandwished in between them, leaving Verstappen to lose quite a bit of time through the second sector whereas Russell aggressively went past Magnussen through Blanchimont.
Hamilton was up next, along with Perez and Piastri, leaving Leclerc worried about the undercut. Stroll though was an ally for the Ferrari driver as his slightly longer first stint enabled Leclerc to come back out comfortably ahead of them.
Sainz and Norris further extended their first stints, leaving Sainz to lead the race by on 14, slightly more than three seconds ahead of Norris and another 7.5s ahead of Hamilton. Leclerc remained close but out of DRS range of Hamilton, followed by Piastri, Perez, Russell, Verstappen, Magnussen and Albon.
As Sainz happily continued on his hard tyres, Norris pitted to exchange his mediums from the start to new hard tyres on lap 16. McLaren's attempt to undercut Sainz was helped considerably by the Spaniard making a small trip through the gravel a bit later, giving away 2 seconds. Norris went on to set the fastest lap in an attempt to close the gap to the Perez - Russell - Verstappen DRS train.
Sainz continued until lap 21 when he changed to medium tyres. His advantage to Hamilton had by then deminished to just 4 seconds, giving the lead back to the Mercedes driver and rejoining in 8th place, 5 seconds behind Norris.
The latter had closed into DRS range of Verstappen by then after Russell had passed Perez on track and the Mexican was called in to pit, avoiding a fight for position between the two Red Bull teammates.
At the end of lap 25 Leclerc was the first to pit. Hamilton was called in the next lap to cover the Ferrari driver. Though both changed to hard tyres it still seemed very early for a second and final stop. Piastri thereby inherited the lead and immediately upped his pace and set the fastest lap, thanks to having a clear track ahead of him.
Verstappen then pitted from 4th on lap 29 and surprisingly went onto mediums. Sainz pitted at the same time and took hard tyres. Norris was in the pits one lap later and chose to take the hardest Pirellis available. Verstappen rejoined the track just behind Perez and was allowed an easy pass by the team.
When the race leader pitted, Piastri stopped a off the marks, leading to a 4.4s pitstop. The Australian returned to the track again about 2.5s behind Leclerc and 4s ahead of Verstappen.
Up in front, Russell opted not to make a second stop and told his team to leave him out. With 12 laps left, The Briton was then 7s ahead of his team mate. Both were running on the hardest Pirelli but Hamilton's were 16 laps younger. Soon after that confirmation by Russell, Hamilton upped his own pace to reduce the gap.
While Verstappen and Norris were close to each other and getting closer to Leclerc and Piastri, the McLaren driver felt he needed some more fresh air and found a way past the Ferrari through Les Combes on lap 37.
5 laps from the end Hamilton got to within 2 seconds of Russell. Verstappen meanwhile got DRS on Leclerc while Norris continued to shadow the Red Bull with number 1.
One lap later the gap between the two Mercedes had been cut by another 0.8 seconds while Piastri was even faster than Hamilton but still at 4.5 seconds.
Hamilton got DRS the next lap but wasn't close enough on the straight to attempt a pass. The next lap he was closer but still not close enough. Hamilton seemed very very close through the bendy second sector, knowing Piastri was closing in quickly from behind as well. Russell always seemed to have a very solid acceleration out of La Source, leaving Hamilton to search for options.
Hamilton could nearly smell victory but in the end was unable to get past Russell. Oscar Piastri finished the race in third place, less than a second behind the Mercedes duo.
