George Russell described his disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix as “heartbreaking” after seeing victory taken away from him after the race.
Mercedes originally secured a 1-2 with Russell pulling off an audacious one-s top strategy to beat Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri in a thrilling finish. Post-race scrutineering then found Russell’s car to be 1.5 kg underweight and, as that is a technical infringement, it automatically leads to a disqualification from the results.
“Heartbreaking…” Russell said. “We came in 1.5 kg 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.”
Speaking before he was disqualified, Russell said the decision to one-stop was a spontaneous one that had not been considered ahead of the race.
“We spoke so much this morning about the two-stop, the three-stop, but suddenly the tires, the car felt really, really good. I got into this groove, and especially when I got into the lead, there were no back markers in front, no other cars in front — it kind of felt like driving a simulator. It was quite weird.