George Russell (Mercedes) was disqualified for being “overweight” after crossing the finish line first in the Belgian Grand Prix (GP) of the 2024 Formula One (F1) World Championship.

Russell was the first to take the chequered flag at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit (7.004 kilometers – 44 laps) in Stavlo, Belgium, on Monday (Aug. 28) with a time of 1 hour, 19 minutes, 57.040 seconds for the 14th round of the F1 World Championship.

His ‘Mercedes teammate’ Lewis Hamilton crossed the line 0.526 seconds behind, followed by Oscar Piastri (McLaren), who tasted his first career victory at the previous round, Round 13.

Russell, who started from the sixth row of the grid, used a strategy that saw him pit only once to secure his third career victory and second of the season, and celebrated with champagne on the podium.

But the victory was short-lived. During post-race inspection, F1 found an anomaly in Russell’s car.

According to F1 regulations, the minimum weight of a car must be 798 kilograms, but Russell’s car weighed 796.5 kilograms.

Russell’s car met the minimum weight just before the race, but was later found to have had 2.8 liters of fuel removed.

Russell, who completed the winning ceremony, was eventually disqualified for being 1.5 kilograms underweight, and the title was awarded to Hamilton, who crossed the line in second place.

The Mercedes team’s mistake cost Russell the win.

“All we can do now is apologize to Russell,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, ”We have to take responsibility for the disqualification. We made a mistake and we need to learn from it,” he said.

Russell also took to social media to say, “I am heartbroken. I was disqualified for being 1.5 kilograms overweight. I’m proud to have been the first to cross the finish line.”

With Russell’s disqualification, second-place finisher Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was crowned the winner.

It was Hamilton’s second win of the season and 105th of his career. 파워볼사이트