Lewis Hamilton issues response to inheriting win from disqualified George Russell

Although Lewis Hamilton did not want to rack up his 105th F1 victory through another driver’s disqualification, he says the upside to the Belgian Grand Prix is that Mercedes are “back in the fight” for race wins.

Mercedes took the chequered flag first and second at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit with George Russell leading Hamilton across the line.

Lewis Hamilton celebrates: Back in the fight for victories

Such was the pace of the W15, Russell’s one-stop strategy ‘won’ the Grand Prix with Hamilton on a two-stopper finishing in second.

However, hours later Russell was disqualified when his W15 was ruled to be 1.5kgs underweight thus handing the victory over to Hamilton.

The team-mates had taken the chequered half a second apart with Russell ahead after his one-stop strategy gave him track position over Hamilton and his fresher tyres.

“I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification,” said the seven-time World Champion, “but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races.

“It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently. Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity.”

The Mercedes intra-team war in numbers

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

The victory marked Mercedes’ third in four races, and their sixth podium result on the trot with the Brackley squad scoring 170 points in six races.

That’s more than championship leaders Red Bull have managed, and second only to McLaren with their 182 points.

“It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away,” Hamilton added.

“The car was feeling good, and we had much better pace than we expected.

“There were several cars that seemed similar in terms of performance but once we had got ahead, we were able to maintain that position. We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us.

“George was able to make the one-stop work and, although I got close to him in the final few laps, I was unable to get past in the dirty air.”

Hamilton later took to Instagram to reiterate his feelings on his 105th GP win.

“Mixed feelings for today’s result,” he wrote. “Obviously happy to get the win but I feel for George and it’s disappointing for the team not to get the 1-2.

“A lot of positives to take from today, though. At the start of the weekend, we didn’t expect to be at the front or the pace we had, so it’s great to see just how much progress has been made and that we are in the fight.

“We take all these positives with us into the break and will come back a stronger team ready to keep the momentum going.”

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