Lewis Hamilton expressed sympathy for team-mate George Russell and admitted “you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification” after he inherited victory of the Belgian GP through his Mercedes team-mate’s exclusion.
Russell, meanwhile, described his post-race disqualification for an underweight car as “heartbreaking”.
The British pair had earlier crossed the finishing line nose-to-nail in a gripping conclusion to the race at Spa-Francorchamps having adopted different pit-stop strategies.
After a storming start from third on the grid, Hamilton had led the race’s first half on a conventional two-stop strategy but lost track position to Russell, who had gambled on a bold one-stopper having run only fifth in the first stint.
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Lewis Hamilton leads the Belgian GP after early overtaking both Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc.
But Russell’s car was later found to be underweight by the FIA technical delegate and subsequently disqualified from the results, with Hamilton promoted from second to the win – his fifth at Spa and record-extending 105th of his career.
“I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races,” said Hamilton via Mercedes’ post-race press release.
“It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently.
“Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity.”
In an earlier post on Instagram, Russell said: “Heartbreaking… We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race.
“We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first.
“There will be more to come.”
Mercedes admit: It’s clearly not good enough
Having lost what would have been their first one-two result since the Sao Paulo GP of November 2022 through the technical infringement, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff apologised to Russell for the error and said they would now assess what had gone wrong on his car.
In their post-race release, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin suggested that rubber lost from Russell’s 35-lap-old tyres was likely a “contributing factor” to the car finishing underweight, although admitted it was nonetheless “clearly not good enough” that they had been caught out.
“We don’t yet understand why the car was underweight following the race but will investigate thoroughly to find the explanation,” said Shovlin.
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Watch race highlights from the Belgian Grand Prix.
“We expect that the loss of rubber from the one stop was a contributing factor, and we’ll work to understand how it happened. We won’t be making any excuses, though.
“It is clearly not good enough and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
What did Hamilton say about the race before Russell’s DSQ?
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Lewis Hamilton leads the Belgian GP after early overtaking both Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc.
Although he ultimately left Belgium with his second win in the last three races, Hamilton had earlier appeared irritated that he had lost out to Russell having led the majority of the race.
Speaking immediately after the race before news of the weight problem with his team-mate’s car emerged, Hamilton accused Mercedes of getting his strategy wrong.
Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “George wasn’t really in my race for most of it.
“And so if the strategy if had been right, he wouldn’t have been in my race. So, we wouldn’t have been having that (battle) but it’s great that at the end we do have cars that are competing.
“It is what it is. I’ll move forward. I’ll go into my break and have a good time.”
Formula 1 returns after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 23-25, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime