Belgium GP : Lewis wins after George disqualification

Lewis Hamilton wins for the 105th time, this one in Belgium. George was disqualified after the race due to race issues. LeClerc got P3

Race win no. 105 for Lewis in Belgium

It was a not a race where Mercedes were in the front. In fact Lewis rued they had one of the worst days on Friday. McLaren were clearly the fastest car and with a 10-place grid penalty Max was out of the contention. However Mercedes slowly kept chipping up. Lewis Hamilton is a 7-time World Champion and it showed this weekend how. He extracted the maximum out of the package given to him. In Quali he slowly kept chipping away and ended up at decent P3 position, with George in P6.

At the race start he got off to a flier and overtook Perez who was starting at P2. Then within a few laps he overtook LeClerc who had started at Pole. Lewis kept the lead for the majority of the race until George came up with a different sublime plan. George went completely against the rest of the field and decided to go for a 1-stop strategy. Fresh asphalt has been laid at the Belgium track and looks like the tire degradation was not that severe. George nursed his car for 34 laps and took the chequered flag, narrowly beating Hamilton and a charging Oscar Piastri. He deserved the victory but was unfortunately disqualified as his car was found 1.5kgs under-weight. Still nothing takes away from Lewis as he too drove a fantastic race.

Red Bull lagging in Belgium

Both the Red Bull drivers were disappointed and rightly so. Sergio Perez narrowly squeezed through to Q2 but then put a spectacular lap to start the race P2. However he fumbled the start and was overtook by Lewis. Then he kept falling back and eventually finished a lowly P7, which doesn’t help much with the Constructor’s Championship. Similarly Max Verstappen had a 10-place grid penalty but he couldn’t move up the grid that fast either and ended up finishing P4. Red Bull are just 42 points behind McLaren in Constructors and there are still 10 races to go. So anything can happen.

McLaren fumble

Lando Norris did not get a good start and his race was pretty much done at that point. He finished P5, behind Max. Oscar had a better race but a pit-stop fumble meant he was behind the Mercs. Thanks to George disqualification, he got a decent P2 position. They had the fastest car and yet could not capitalize on it.

Ferrari are now the 4th fastest car on the grid – behind McLaren, Red Bull and the Mercs. Charles somehow managed to pull a stunner and put his car on Pole. However he could not hold on to it and finished P3. Carlos had an average race and he finished P6. Alonso, Ocon and Ricciardo got the final three places.

Belgium GP : Lewis winner after George disqualification