George Russell executed a one-stop strategy to capture the win in the Belgian Gran Prix at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps on Sunday (July 28).
Russell was able to hold off his Mercedes-Benz teammate Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the closing laps to earn his third-career Formula 1 Gran Prix victory and second of 2024. He is now the only driver besides Max Verstappen to win multiple races this season.
Polesitter Charles Leclerc finished fourth, ahead of Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez (who scored the fastest lap), Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10.
Leclerc inherited the pole after Verstappen was dinged with a 10-place grid penalty due to his team taking a new internal combustion engine part for this weekend, exceeding his allocation for the season.
Leclerc was able to drive away from the start while Hamilton and Perez battled for second. Hamilton broke free from the Red Bull of Perez and the made quick work of Leclerc, passing the Ferrari on lap 3.
The opening tire run was processional through the top eight of the field. But after the first pit stops, Piastri was the biggest mover after re-passing Russell, who attempted an undercut, and Perez.
Sainz started on the hard compound tire and was the last of the leaders to pit as he pitted on lap 21 to take the medium tire.
Perez fell from third to sixth in the second tire stint, and he was first of the leaders to make the second pit stop on lap 22, immediately clocking fastest laps.
Hamilton managed the gap from Leclerc to 2.4 seconds before the No. 16 Ferrari dived into pit road on lap 25. However, a 3.4 second stop hindered the Monegasque from undercutting Hamilton.
All the leaders pitted except one: Russell. Happy with his tires, Russell opted to stay out, leading ahead of his teammate Hamilton.
Meanwhile, Hamilton was worried about a driver behind him. Piastri moved to third after passing Leclerc. Piastri needed to close in on a 5.5-second gap to Hamilton on lap 38 of 44. However, he was unable to make any gain on Hamilton before the Mercedes driver caught his teammate for the lead.
With four laps to go, Hamilton got to the back of Russell, and over the final four laps, the two Mercedes duked it out for the win. Piastri closed into DRS range on the final lap, but the one-stop strategy gave Russell just enough of a cushion to hang on to the victory.
Belgian Gran Prix Results
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