- George Russell looked like he had won the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday
- But he was later disqualified because his car was found to be 1.5kg underweight.
- Following Russell’s disqualification, his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton moved up to first place.
Mercedes has issued a statement after losing the 1-2 win at the Belgian Grand Prix.
George Russell crossed the line first, ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, after executing a bold one-stop strategy at Spa.
However, just hours into the race, Russell was disqualified after his car was found to be 1.5 kilograms underweight.
His car initially weighed 798 kg: the minimum weight allowed for the car and driver together.
But the stewards later discovered that the car had not been completely emptied of fuel, so the weight was adjusted to 796.5kg.
George Russell pictured (right) celebrating after finishing first in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix
But he was later disqualified, so the victory was awarded to his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes responded to the news of Russell’s disqualification by admitting their “mistake” in a statement from team principal and CEO Toto Wolff.
“We have to accept our disqualification,” Wolff said.
“We have clearly made a mistake and we must make sure we learn from it. We will go away, assess what happened and understand what went wrong.
‘Losing a double is frustrating and we can only apologise to George, who had a very good race.
‘Lewis, of course, moved up to P1; he was quickest in the two stops and is a deserved winner.
‘Despite the disqualification, there are many positive things we can take from this weekend. We had a car that was the benchmark in today’s race with two different strategies. Just a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable.
“We’re heading into the summer break having won three of the last four races. We’ll try to come back from the break refreshed and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory.”
Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has issued a statement following the disqualification.
Despite its recent run of excellent results, Mercedes currently sits fourth in the 2024 constructors’ standings.
Red Bull leads with 408 points, followed by McClaren with 366, Ferrari with 345 and Mercedes with 266.