Formula 1 driver George Russell won the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. However, stewards disqualified him after finding the Mercedes to be underweight.
According to a Technical Delegate's Report, the car was initially within compliance with a minimum weight of 798 kilograms. However, the race car was underweight after the removal of 2.8 liters of fuel.
As a result, stewards disqualified Russell, making Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton the grand prix winner. Oscar Piastri moved into second place. Charles Leclerc moved up to third place, his sixth podium finish of the season.
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.🏆💙 pic.twitter.com/6RfucAqPyF
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) July 28, 2024
"The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled," the report stated, per the F1 website.
"The car was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor. As this is 1.5 kg below the minimum weight requested in TR Article 4.1, which also has to be respected at all times during the competition, I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration."
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team Principal Toto Wolff issued a statement after the disqualification, saying that the team would accept the outcome. He added that the team "clearly made a mistake" and that it needed to learn from it as F1 heads into the summer break.
"We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races," Wolff said. "We will look to come back after shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory."
Russell entered the Belgian Grand Prix with one win this season. He captured the Austrian Grand Prix on June 30. Hamilton then won the British Grand Prix on July 7.
With Hamilton inheriting the Belgian Grand Prix win on Sunday, he now has 105 career wins and 201 podium finishes. The seven-time champion already held the record for the most wins in F1 history. He is currently 44 wins ahead of three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen.