Hamilton Claims Another After DSQ Madness

The 2024 Belgian Grand Prix gave us a thrilling race at the fan favourite Spa Francorchamps, where Lewis Hamilton clinched victory after George Russell, who initially crossed the line first after a brilliant one-stop strategy, was disqualified for an underweight car at parc-fermé. The seven-time champ's win came after a strategic and patient race, overtaking polesitter Charles Leclerc early on and bearing down on Russell in the dying laps. Oscar Piastri secured second place for McLaren, while Leclerc finished third for Ferrari. Defending champion Verstappen made a remarkable recovery from P11 to finish fourth, with Lando Norris rounding out the top five.

Qualifying

Max Verstappen set the fastest time in qualifying for the Sunday’s GP with a lap of 1:53.159, however had to start from P11 due to a 10-place grid penalty for a Power Unit change, meaning Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc inherited pole position to increase his season tally to two. Sergio Perez qualified third, followed by Lewis Hamilton in fourth - the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked in fifth and sixth places respectively.

Q1

The 7.004-kilometre track remained wet due to earlier rain, creating uncertain conditions - Lance Stroll’s participation was in doubt after a crash in FP3, but he was cleared to go out.

Drivers rushed to set times early in Q1, anticipating more rain. All started on intermediate tyres, but grip was initially poor. As the track improved, times dropped rapidly. Notable performances included Bottas moving from last to sixth and Gasly slotting into third. Verstappen eventually topped the timesheets, with Piastri and Gasly following.

Out of Q1 was:

16th - Nico HULKENBERG

17th - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

18th - Yuki TSUNODA

19th - Logan SARGEANT

20th - ZHOU Guanyu

Q2

The green-walled Intermediates were the tyre of choice as Q2 rolled around; Verstappen noted a “very fine drizzle” early on, but the track dried quickly. McLaren’s Norris improved his time significantly, but Verstappen was ultimately even faster, by six tenths, leading the session. As rain increased in the final minutes, the Ferrari pairing of Sainz and Leclerc were at risk but managed to secure top-five positions. Perez initially fell to P11 but improved to just make it into Q3 in P10.

Knocked out of Q2:

11th - Alexander ALBON

12th - Pierre GASLY

13th - Daniel RICCIARDO

14th - Valtteri BOTTAS

15th - Lance STROLL

Q3

For Saturday’s final session, Mercedes led the queue, with Hamilton questioning strategy due to potential rain; Verstappen set the fastest time initially, with teammate Perez and Hamilton just behind.

While some drivers pitted, Mercedes and McLaren stayed out to avoid potential rain. Norris improved to fourth, but Verstappen’s time remained unbeaten. Leclerc moved to second, Perez to third (his best qualifying performance since the Chinese Grand Prix in April), and Hamilton to fourth. The top ten was rounded out by Norris, Piastri, Russell, Sainz, Alonso, and Ocon.

Merc Hit It Out The Park

The Brackley-based team has found itself on quite the run recently, with three wins in the last four races - quite the longshot looking back at last season and certainly the one before in 2022!

The team had a dramatic and eventful performance on the race weekend - initially, it seemed like a perfect day, with George Russell crossing the finish line first, followed closely by compatriot Lewis Hamilton, marking what appeared to be a one-two finish for Mercedes.

Russell's bold one-stop strategy allowed him to maintain the lead despite Hamilton's relentless pursuit on fresher tires. However, post-race inspections revealed that Russell's car was underweight by 1.5kg, leading to his disqualification less than an hour after the chequered flag fell. This unexpected turn of events handed the victory to Hamilton, who thus secured his second win of the season and extended his record to 105 career victories.

Despite the disqualification, George Russell kept his chin up and was pleased to have still bagged good points for the team:

“It is heartbreaking to be disqualified from today’s race … Despite the disqualification, I am of course proud to have crossed the line first. It is also good that the team was still able to take the victory with Lewis … I know we will bounce back stronger after the summer break, starting in Zandvoort.”

— George Russell

Not Quite a Bullseye

Max Verstappen has recently acknowledged that Red Bull's days of dominance are behind them following the Belgian Grand Prix; Despite a positive race where he finished fifth after starting from P11 due to a grid penalty, the Dutchman admitted that recovering from low grid positions is now much harder due to a much more competitive field, with the likes of McLaren and Mercedes coming into the fray.

Verstappen highlighted that while his championship lead increased, Red Bull's performance has not been as up to scratch as he’d have liked in recent weekends. He noted that the cars are very similar in pace, making it difficult to move up the grid, and emphasising the need for Red Bull to analyse and improve their car during the mid-season break to remain competitive and make a push for the Constructors’ trophy.

On the other side of the garage, Perez had a middling race at best, starting P2 and finishing P7, falling also to P7 in the standings as a result, which has led to increased speculation and chatter about the Mexican driver being dropped by the Milton Keynes team after the Summer break.

Ambitious Astons

Aston Martin chanced a one-stop strategy with both of their drivers at Spa-Francorchamps - this proved fruitful for only one of the two, namely driver number 14 (as you’d come to expect!)

Fernando Alonso was pleased with his P9 finish, which was later upgraded to P8 after George Russell's disqualification. He credited the team's strategic decision to extend his first stint on medium tires and then switch to hard tires for a single pit stop. Despite the team's current gap to the top four teams, Alonso considered the points a positive outcome, branding the weekend “a bit of a win”.

Alonso is optimistic about the second half of the season, hoping the team can learn from recent races and come back stronger after the summer break. Meanwhile, his teammate Lance Stroll finished P12, later upgraded to P11, but struggled with tire degradation and straight-line speed.

Sauber Sadness

The first half of the 2024 season has been a tough one for Sauber, as they remain the only team yet to score a single point. Despite some small signs of progress on the track, the team has struggled to match their best result of 11th place, achieved by Zhou Guanyu in Bahrain. Fan-favourite Finn Valtteri Bottas has generally outperformed Zhou in both qualifying and races (9 - 5), but both drivers have faced the plight of technical issues and shoddy luck. Leadership changes ahead of Audi’s takeover, such as Red Bull’s Jonathan Wheatley set to take the Team Principal role next year, are expected to bring improvements.

Kick Sauber’s main gripes this season have been:

Performance Issues: In spite of improvements, the team is still struggling to break into the top 10.
Technical Problems: Zhou Guanyu’s race at Spa was hampered by a hydraulics issue, highlighting ongoing reliability concerns.
Competitive Field: The competition is fierce, with many teams making significant advancements, making it harder for the team to battle for and secure points.

Bottas is hopeful that Sauber’s development will bring them further up the grid after the Summer break - he probably wasn’t beaming from ear to ear when he said that like in this photo though!

Valtteri Bottas on Sauber’s prospects for the rest of 2024

We started the season with not that easy a car to set up, and even on pure pace, we were not quite there. We've made some improvement since, but more like baby steps instead of big jumps, unlike some other teams around us.

The Belgian Grand Prix taught us how unforgiving the sport can be, with a hard-fought victory being torn away from you being a real possibility, as George Russell now knows. Formula One is off to Zandvoort very soon - can Verstappen make it four Dutch GP victories on the trot in front of his home crowd?

Whatever happens, we’ll be sure to cover all the best bits here on Race Reaction!

Final race classification

DSQ - George RUSSELL

1 - Lewis HAMILTON

2 - Oscar PIASTRI

3 - Charles LECLERC

4 - Max VERSTAPPEN

5 - Lando NORRIS

6 - Carlos SAINZ

7 - Sergio PEREZ

8 - Fernando ALONSO

9 - Esteban OCON

10 - Daniel RICCIARDO

11 - Lance STROLL

12 - Alexander ALBON

13 - Pierre GASLY

14 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

15 - Valtteri BOTTAS

16 - Yuki TSUNODA

17 - Logan SARGEANT

18 - Nico HULKENBERG

DNF - ZHOU Guanyu