Fate hands Hamilton his lost Spa win back

Almost 16 years ago, Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag first at the end of a heart-stopping final sequence of laps to win the Belgian Grand Prix for the first time in his Formula 1 career.

Or so he thought. Two hours after stepping off the podium, trophy in hand, the McLaren driver was informed victory was no longer his.

Deemed to have cut the Bus Stop chicane and gaining an advantage while battling Kimi Raikkonen for the lead three laps from the finish, the stewards handed Hamilton a 25-second hammer blow which cost him victory, handing it to his championship rival Felipe Massa.

A decade-and-a-half later, the ripple effects from that single incident can still be felt throughout modern Formula 1. It was the first in a series of controversial incidents that marred the conclusion of that 2008 title fight – legal battles are still being fought over another. But what happened at Spa arguably started a shift in the culture of the sport where interventions by the stewards went from a rarity to a regularity.

Despite over 100 victories in his grand prix career, the loss of that win in 2008 would forever be a point of frustration for Hamilton. But in 2024, when that day was nothing but a distant memory, the racing gods returned the win they took away all those years ago. Only this time, his own team mate would be the one to pay forfeit.

Mercedes were expected by many to be stronger through Spa’s flowing curves than they had been the previous weekend around the super-sized karting track that is the Hungaroring. But Red Bull’s resurgence had seen Max Verstappen return to the top of the times in a drizzly qualifying session, while Sergio Perez had even backed up his team mate with third-fastest time.

Hamilton had beaten the two McLarens, which dominated the previous Sunday, to fourth on the grid. But with Verstappen paying for a fifth power unit with a 10-place grid penalty, Charles Leclerc had picked up pole in his place, while Hamilton had moved up to third.

Spa had gone from soggy to sunny by the time cars lined up on the grid for the start of the 14th round of the championship. With low downforce and low grip expected from the semi-repaved circuit, no one was entertaining the thought of anything but a two-stop strategy. Almost everyone had opted to start the race on the medium compound; among the top 10, only the seventh-placed Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jnr was on hards.

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