Lewis Hamilton draws attention to race strategists after ‘never told’ Russell plan

Lewis Hamilton was frustrated with the Mercedes pit wall at the Belgian Grand Prix as he was not told that he was at risk of being “one-stopped” by George Russell for the win.

Hamilton looked to be on course for his 105th Formula 1 victory on merit at Spa on Sunday having led for much of the race.

Lewis Hamilton: I should be able to lean on him fully

But as Hamilton pitted for his second stop of the afternoon, on the other side of the garage Russell and his strategist spoke of a “one-stop” strategy.

That gave Russell track position into the closing laps where even though Hamilton was on fresher tyres and within DRS range, he wasn’t able to launch an attack on his team-mate.

Russell crossed the line half a second ahead of Hamilton but was later stripped of the victory due to a technical infringement when his W15 was found to be 1.5kgs underweight with Hamilton inheriting the victory.

The seven-time World Champion though, was not happy that his strategist hadn’t told him about Russell’s one-stop call.

“You have to put your faith in the people that you work with so I put my faith in my strategist,” he told Viaplay . “I should be able to lean on him fully.

“I told him that the tyres were fine and they called me in.

“Did I know that I was at risk of getting one-stopped by my team-mate? They didn’t tell me that.

“But congrats to George, it’s great to go into the break with such performance. We all feel a bit lighter going in and hopefully come back stronger in the second half.”

Insight into the Belgian GP and Mercedes’ near 1-2 result

👉 Belgian GP conclusions: Mercedes fireworks? Game over for Perez and Jos Verstappen factor

👉 Disqualified George Russell joins very exclusive club after deleted Belgian GP win

Toto Wolff defended Mercedes’ call to stop Hamilton twice, saying it was done to cover off Charles Leclerc while in Russell’s case the driver had nothing to lose and the team could gamble.

“I’d like to have two winners today,” he told Sky Sport s. “But we had to cover Leclerc and Norris because we would’ve been undercut, so that was the call. George had nothing to lose.

“The one-stop and the two-stops were showing P5 so we just kept him out. He was very good. Lewis was very good. The strategy played for George, and not for Lewis.

“We didn’t think it was possible. But, at a certain stage, we said ‘let’s stay out’ because we would have finished fifth anyway, in both scenarios. He made it last.”

Read next: Christian Horner points out Mercedes ‘mistake’ after George Russell disqualification