Official: George Russell disqualified from Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton inherits race victory at Spa
Mercedes driver George Russell has been disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix after his car failed to reach the minimum weight. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton inherits the Spa F1 victory.
Despite winning the Belgian Grand Prix, George Russell's victory has been put in danger as it has failed to reach the minimum weight during the post-race technical inspection.
FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer issued a statement at 17.50 local time, claiming that the double weighing procedure showed that George Russell's W15 failed to reach the minimum weight of 798kg.
The statement read: “After the race, car number 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0kg, which is the minimum weight by TR Article 4.1. After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 litres of fuel were removed.
“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 765.5kg.
“The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor. As this is 1.5kg 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.”
The FIA has now confirmed that Russell has been disqualified from the 2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix after the FIA found his car to be underweight.
This hands Lewis Hamilton his 105th career F1 win - his second of the 2024 season. The DSQ promotes Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc to second and third respectively.
Max Verstappen has been classified fourth ahead of Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. In terms of the midfield, Fernando Alonso ended up eighth ahead of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo.
FIA's final verdict read: "The Stewards heard from the team representative of Car 63 (George Russell), the FIA Technical Delegate, the FIA Single Seater Director and the FIA Single SeaterTechnical Director.
"Car 63 was weighed on the FIA inside and outside scales with both scales showing the same result of 796.5 kg. The calibration of both scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.
"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.
