George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished 1-2, with McLaren’s Oscar Pisatri taking third. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rallied from his penalty-assigned start position, 11th, to finish 5th.
SPA-FRANCHORCHAMPS, Belgium. Storylines were all around on Sunday at the Spa. George Russell won on an old set of hard tires, just holding off Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. Oscar Piastri outdistanced Lando Norris, his McLaren teammate and possibly the hottest driver on the circuit, taking third to Norris’s sixth. And all eyes were on Max Verstappen to pull off a miraculous comeback that, in the end, he couldn’t.
“We made many changes from Friday night,” Russell said, “and the tires just felt great. I kept saying, ‘We can do the one-stop.” But teammate Hamilton was more cautious. “We had such a disaster on Friday; the car was really nowhere. So we made some changes, and it was hard to see what it would feel like because of yesterday’s weather. But the car was fantastic. So we really owe it to the team here, through the pit stops and strategy, and the guys back at the factory.”
Russell made only one pit stop for those tires and, from lap 32 onwards, had the lead. With teammate Hamilton on better tires and closing in, both drivers were ordered to race against one another and keep it clean. While both complied, Piastri began closing in, and they held off his challenge by a matter of seconds, enabling Mercedes to take its first 1-2 in just over two years.
That group opened a gap that went back to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who also had a battle, holding off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take fourth, while the other McLaren of Lando Norris finished sixth. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was seventh, and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in eighth. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished in ninth, and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon made a last-minute pass to take the last point position in tenth.
After the race, Russell complemented both of his prime competitors: “Piastri did a great job, and also well done to Lewis, who really controlled that race. If circumstances were slightly different, I am sure he would have won. Still, a one-two for the team was an awesome result and a great way to go into the break.”
That break will be nearly a month as all factories and their team will be back for the next race on August 25th in Holland at the famous Zandvoort circuit. Going into the summer break, Verstappen holds a 78-point lead over Norris in the Drivers Championship, with Red Bull 43 points ahead of McLaren in the Constructor standings.
