F1 news: George Russell disqualified after Mercedes breached Belgian GP rules

The Brit is still, understandably, absolutely gutted.

The Belgian GP title was sewed up and he was a podium champion, in a historic 1-2 for Mercedes.

And then it all unravelled. Now, Russell has spoken out after the official decision to strip him of the win was made.

Russell wrote on X: "Heartbreaking.

"We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race. We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come."

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has blasted Sergio Perez after he "completely collapsed" in the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.

On Monday, Red Bull are poised to hold talks to assess the driver line-up for 2025, with Perez under threat of losing his seat with the world champions.

The 34-year-old has been in wretched form and went from second on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps to finish eighth. He was also comfortably beaten by his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen, despite the Dutchman having a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change that meant he started 11th.

Marko told Sky Germany: "Sergio had the opportunity to take a good result from second place. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Especially in the last stint, he completely collapsed, where he set 1m48s lap times.

"What looked so positive in qualifying unfortunately didn't materialise in the race."

Read more here.

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff admits the team must take the decision to disqualify George Russell "on the chin" before congratulating Lewis Hamilton as a "deserved winner".

The Austrian also apologised to Russell for the team's error, which cost him a third career victory, and vowed to investigate how the error came about.

George Russell has been quick to react to his cruel disqualification on social media. Here's what the Mercedes star had to say on his X account.

"Heartbreaking… We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race," the Briton said.

"We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was quick to point out Mercedes' mistake after George Russell's disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix.

Reacting to the news in the F1 paddock, Horner admitted he felt sorry for Russell but chose to focus on Mercedes' error in calculating their fuel levels.

"I'm sure he would have lost well over a kilo of rubber, we saw that on Friday," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"But you have to carry enough fuel to be able to do the sample, otherwise you're using fuel as ballast.

"Really sad news for George but obviously a mistake in their [Mercedes'] calculations."

George Russell has officially been stripped of the Belgian Grand Prix crown after his car was found to have been underweight by Spa stewards.

Lewis Hamilton, previously the runner-up, has been awarded the win. Oscar Piastri moved up to second while Charles Leclerc was awarded a podium place.

"During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly," the stewards' report said.

"The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team."

Toto Wolff believes that Mercedes' breach of the Belgian Grand Prix rules stems from George Russell opting for a one-stop strategy.

He admitted to making a "mistake" if the stewards disqualify Russell, though Hamilton would still be crowned the race winner.

“It’s been reported to the stewards that there was a weight discrepancy," Wolff said. "We will see what the stewards decide. I can’t comment because the stewards haven’t said their verdict but I would suspect it’s because we ran one tyre throughout [for most of] the race.”

“You have to take it on the chin. If the stewards decide against ourselves, a mistake has happened.

“A one-two would have been a great result going into the summer break, it couldn’t be any better. The positives from this race is we had two cars that were the benchmark with two different strategies and who could have said that a few months ago.”

George Russell has been referred to the stewards after it was confirmed that his car came in underweight after winning the Belgian Grand Prix.

The BBC claim that it is likely that he will be disqualified, with Lewis Hamilton handed an unexpected victory.

The Spa stewards say that the car weighed 798.0kg, the minimum weight required, but fuel had not been fully drained and when weighted again on the FIA scales it came in at 796.5kb.

George Russell paid thanks to his team for their strategy after pulling off a remarkable one-stop Belgian GP victory.

"Amazing result," a delighted Mercedes winner said. "Definitely didn't predict this win this morning in our strategy meeting.

"The car was feeling awesome. We made a lot of changes from Friday night and the tyres felt great. I kept saying 'I think we could do a one-stop'.

"The strategy did a great job. Well done to Lewis. He really controlled that race. If the circumstances were different, I'm sure he would have got the victory. One-two for the team is awesome."

When asked who was the architect behind the one-stop, Russell replied: "I was focusing a lot during the race. I will have to listen back to the radio comms!

"It was a team effort. We rolled the dice but it was only possible because the car felt great and the pace was there. A one-two is a great result."

George Russell has fought his way to a second win of the season in Belgium, in a Mercedes one-two with Lewis Hamilton.

The pair were allowed to fight for the final few laps as the seven-time world champion looked to overtake his team-mate, but Russell was able to hold off Hamilton for an incredible one-stop victory.

Oscar Piastri was lurking behind and his late pace threatened the Silver Arrows, but he could only take third, with Charles Leclerc fourth and Max Verstappen fifth.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown had promised Oscar Piastri that he would get a mohawk if the driver won a Grand Prix - then turned up to Belgium wearing a fake mock-up of the haircut.

Brown was the talk of the paddock but later informed the media that Piastri is far from happy and ordered a real trip to the barbers if he claimed another win.

The McLaren chief then joked that he would need to alter their strategy if it looked likely that Piastri, currently in fourth, was heading towards back-to-back wins.

Lewis Hamilton has made a storming start to the Belgian GP, taking the lead after overtakes on Sergio Perez and then Charles Leclerc.

The Brit moved ahead on the third lap after a strong start that got him ahead of Perez and moved out of DRS range.

Max Verstappen has moved up to eighth from 11th, while a mistake on the start from Lando Norris cost him dearly and now has the Red Bull over his shoulder.

Max Verstappen is starting the Belgian GP in 11th place, but Lando Norris knows that it won't be too long before he is pushing those at the top of the grid.

Norris and Oscar Piastri start fourth and fifth respectively after an underwhelming Saturday, in the knowledge that they will have to look over the shoulders.

"I'm excited, ready to go and optimistic we can have a good result but we know the Red Bulls will be very fast," Norris told Sky Sports F1. "So a bit nervous about them but excited we can put on a good race.

"At the minute, the Red Bull is the quicker car so it will be tough to keep them behind. We have a lower wing, which allows us to overtake and move forward.

"We have chances but will have to look ahead and behind."

Esteban Ocon seemingly did not realise that his company car was equipped with tracking data when he left his vehicle in Williams' parking lot.

Alpine chief Marcin Budkowski claimed that "everybody" within the team knew that their driver was holding talks with rivals due to the technology in his car.

Ocon had been free to speak with rivals, however, after Alpine confirmed that they would not be renewing their partnership.

He has since signed for Haas for 2025 and will start today from ninth on the grid.

Daniel Ricciardo will harbour no resentment towards Red Bull if they decide to promote Liam Lawson over him.

Christian Horner's outfit will soon begin deliberating over Sergio Perez's future, with Ricciardo and Lawson linked with the seat next to Max Verstappen.

And Ricciardo has made peace with whatever decision the team makes.

"I put enough trust in Red Bull that, if a change were to happen, whoever gets it, I feel they will have the right reasons to be in there," Ricciardo told The Mirror.

"Red Bull will have done enough research and say, whoever the guy is, 'That's who we believe can help us win this constructors'. That's the other thing - you don't know if they are looking at this year or the next three years.

"All I can do is the best that I can. I'm not going to be resentful, looking at someone like, 'F**k that guy, he doesn't deserve it'. I will be the one who looks at myself and goes, 'I could have done better, I should have done better'.

"I'm more invested and in love with the sport than I have been in a long time. If I leave it all on the table then that's all I can do. I believe it could probably be enough but, if it's not enough, I'm also at peace with that."

Despite leading the way this afternoon, Charles Leclerc is prepared for a "tricky" race at Spa.

Max Verstappen ran quickest during qualifying, but his 10-place grid penalty pushed him down to 11th and promoted Leclerc to pole.

But the Ferrari driver is under no illusions about how difficult winning in Belgium is going to be.

“It’s going to be a tricky race for us,” said Leclerc. “It will be dry conditions and in dry conditions recently we’ve been struggling a little bit more.

“The McLaren is a bit further away [on pace] than what we wanted. There’s Checo [Sergio Perez] right behind. That will be the main target, and then we’ll see how it goes after the first stint.

“But it’s a good starting position. It’s also a track where you can overtake quite easily, so we’ll need the pace."

Red Bull have reportedly changed the conditions in Max Verstappen's contract so that he cannot leave if Helmut Marko departs.

“There is talk that Max Verstappen could leave the team is Dr. Helmut Marko left,” Martin Brundle told Sky Sports.

“My understanding is that all that paperwork has been changed, and that cannot happen, at least until 2026. Max is nailed on.”

Ted Kravitz says he is confused over why Red Bull broke the curfew to work on Max Verstappen's car on Friday night.

He said: “Max said, ‘Thanks to the mechanics for working so late’, now this is an interesting story.

“I still haven’t got to the bottom of what it was because the rumour was that Max was going to use the new engine that they put, the fresh engine and then go to an older engine in the pool because Spa isn’t so tough on engines and it wouldn’t be tough today in the rain because he wants to use the goodness of the fresh engine in Monza and Zandvoort where he really wants to win.

“So, I don’t get as to why Christian Horner has said and it’s quite a strong rumour, it’s well-sourced, so I don’t understand why Red Bull had to break the curfew and stay late changing things and why it’s the original fresh engine in there.

“So, I can only deduce that the pool engine that they put in didn’t work or something went wrong and they had to change back?

“But I haven’t had that confirmed by Red Bull. I think that’s what Max must have meant when he thanked the mechanics for working so late.”

Lando Norris is worried that Max Verstappen will be a major threat despite the Red Bull star starting from P11 on the grid due to a penalty for taking a new engine.

“Definitely a threat,” said Norris. “I think he’s clearly been quickest all weekend, even yesterday in FP2, they just didn’t turn up the engine, and we had. So considering we were only two-tenths ahead, they had a lot more in their bag, basically.

“So yes, in a way, a good thing, it shows that we still have a lot more work to do, even after a lot of great races the past few weeks, I think Red Bull have always been there thereabouts."

Oscar Piastri is expecting Sergio Perez to come out swinging with the Red Bull man fighting for his seat.

“Obviously we're in a fight with Red Bull in the constructors', and Max is leading the world championship in the drivers' standings,” Piastri said.

“So of course I expect Checo [Perez] to put up a fight, I think even for his own sake.

“It's not been the easiest run for him and I think of course, more than anyone, he probably wants a really good result for himself.

“So I think he'll fight hard for it, but I don't think any harder than he would if it was another situation.”

Martin Brundle has named Yuki Tsunoda as the driver that has boosted his reputation the most through his performances this season.

“I’m going to a bit left-field here,” he said. “I’m going to say Yuki Tsunoda. I think he’s really been outstanding this year. He needed to move his game on, and he has done so

Max Verstappen claims that McLaren still have the quickest package despite comfortably topping the timesheet in Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will both start on the third row.

"I think if you look at the last five, six races, they for sure have been the best,” Verstappen said. “I mean, quite clear.

“And I mean, that’s fine. Fair play to them. I think they have done a great job.

“From our side, yeah, we have a bit of work to do, a few things also to analyse over the break. From race one all the way to here, what we have done."

Martin Brundle has urged Red Bull to let Liam Lawson drive for another team if they decide against handing him a seat on the F1 grid in 2025.

Lawson, 22, has reportedly been in talks with Sauber about driving for them ahead of the Audi takeover as doubts emerge over his future with Red Bull or RB.

And the Sky Sports F1 pundit believes it is high time the New Zealander gets a chance to prove himself after a five-race cameo in 2023.

“They’ve got to give Lawson a chance or release him to go somewhere else,” Brundle said on Sky Sports F1.

Lando Norris believes Max Verstappen will be a threat to their chances of winning the Belgian Grand Prix despite starting 11th.

"Yes, definitely a threat. I think clearly he's been quickest all weekend, even in FP2, they just turned the engine down, and they had a lot more pace in the bag," Norris told reporters at Spa.

"It is a good thing as it shows there is a lot more work to do, even after the great races of the past few weeks.

"Red Bull has always been there or thereabouts, Max was easily on par with us in qualifying [in Hungary], and had pretty much the same race pace, he just made more mistakes than what we did.

"At the minute, he is definitely the strongest, so is going to be a threat."

Max Verstappen refused to be drawn on Lewis Hamilton's comments calling on him to "act like a world champion".

The Red Bull star insists he isn't bothered about what people saying about him and said people should move on from the incident that saw him and Hamilton collide in Hungary.

“Do you know how it is like [to act like a World Champion]?” he said. “Everyone can have their opinion. That’s all fine, but I can’t do anything with that.

“That’s not my problem either. You don’t have to dwell on it for very long either. It’s all resolved and we’ll just get on with it.”

Lando Norris has hit out at a “shocking” qualifying display for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix which leaves him scrambling to take advantage of championship rival Max Verstappen’s grid penalty.

He will have to pass a Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes to win, with Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton all ahead of him on the grid.

“About as good as I could do today,” said Norris on the radio after he qualified fifth. “That was shocking.”

Sergio Perez said he "couldn't care less" about the speculation over his F1 future as the threat of the Red Bull axe looms.

The Mexican is fighting for his career this weekend with Red Bull considering whether they need to make a driver line-up change over the summer break. After back-to-back qualifying crashes in the last two rounds, if Perez needed anything it was a strong showing on Saturday.

And he produced exactly that, going third fastest in Q3 having survived a scare by setting only the 10th-quickest Q2 time. And because team-mate Max Verstappen will serve a 10-place grid drop, Perez will start the race on the front row alongside pole-sitter Charles Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton has warned Max Verstappen that the Brit will not let go of his podium place without a fight ahead of tomorrow's race.

Verstappen will start the Belgian Grand Prix in 11th, eight places behind Hamilton, though with Spa famed for its many opportunities to overtake - the Dutchman will have sights set on a top-three finish.

But Hamilton has other plans. "Obviously Max [Verstappen] is going to make his way through because I think they are the quickest this weekend," he told Sky Sports F1.

"So holding on to the podium is going to be a hell of a fight. But I’m ready for it.”

Even Charles Leclerc did not think that he would walk away from today's qualifying session with pole position.

He was second-fastest behind Max Verstappen, but will start from the front on Sunday owing to the Red Bull driver's 10-place grid penalty.

"Exactly the same (as last year)," Leclerc reflected. "It's good. I definitely did not expect that this weekend. Obviously with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations.

"So it's a good day for the team so now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone.

"Without this rain, probably P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes especially. But with the rain it helped us a little bit, but I'm not going to complain.

"I'm really happy, I'm really happy with the lap in Q3, and it's good to be back on the front part of the grid. Now we've got to finalise that tomorrow."

Max Verstappen is not counting himself out of winning the Belgian Grand Prix, but knows he has a difficult task on his hands.

The Dutchman's Red Bull was the fastest on the grid, but a 10-place grid penalty has ensured that he will start the race in 11th position.

"I know that I have to start 10 places back so this was the best I could do today, and I go from there," he said in his post-race interview. "I don’t know how quick we’re going to be. I hope that we can be in the mix to try to move forward.

"The race can be lost in Turn 1, so just need to see what happens at the start, naturally, and just go from there. It’s a very long race, it’s very hard on tyres and we just need to try to manage that as good as we can, and hopefully then we can be competitive tomorrow.

"We are not making it easy on ourselves and especially of course in the battle that we’re in. I know that today was a great day, but it’s in the wet, we need to be quick in the dry tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough battle.

"We’ll try to do the best we can. Hopefully we can battle the Ferrari and Mercedes ahead, and if we have a bit of luck, maybe we can challenge the McLaren."

Max Verstappen was by far and away the fastest driver on the grid, but Charles Leclerc will start on pole after the Red Bull man's 10-place grid penalty.

The Dutchman may have left his own team red-faced with his pace, but he has it all to do tomorrow...

1) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

2) Sergio Perez, Red Bull

3) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

4) Lando Norris, McLaren

5) Oscar Piastri, McLaren

6) George Russell, Mercedes

7 Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

8) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

9) Esteban Ocon, Alpine

10) Alex Albon, Williams

11) Max Verstappen, Red Bull

Sergio Perez has reached Q3 for just the second time in eight races, 0.003 seconds faster than Alex Albon, with both Mercedes also making it through after some doubts.

Perez has confirmed his place in the top 10 for tomorrow's race, ensuring he will start ahead of Max Verstappen for the first time in 2024.

11) Alex Albon, Williams

12) Pierre Gasly, Alpine

13) Daniel Ricciardo, RB

14) Valtteri Bottas, Sauber

15) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

Sergio Perez survived a late scare, ending his run of Q1 exits, as two Haas exit early and Oscar Piastri goes fastest.

16) Nico Hulkenberg, Haas

17) Kevin Magnussen, Haas

18) Yuki Tsunoda, RB

19) Logan Sargeant, Williams

20) Zhou Guanyu, Sauber

We are just moments away from Qualifying at Spa, here's your reminder that Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda will have 10 and 60-place grid penalties respectively for tomorrow's race.

Fortunately the rain has eased, but who knows how long it will stay dry in Belgium...

With very little action during FP3, Sky Sports were forced to turn their attention elsewhere while the session was red-flagged.

The world feed cameras and director were seemingly more interested in nearby carting action instead of the F1 paddock at Spa.

With more rain expected, they could yet get even more airtime...

Christian Horner opened up on a 'clear-the-air' meeting between Max Verstappen and Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase on Thursday.

Verstappen lashed out and swore repeatedly for all to hear on the team radio in Hungary, criticising Lambiase before they sat down for talks.

"Thursday is 'ok guys, let's go through the weekend' and the best way to deal with any issue is to talk about it, talk it through, and GP and Max did that," Horner told Sky Sports.

"Already turned the page, focused on this weekend and try to go into the summer break in the best possible shape."

Max Verstappen leads a washed-out FP3 at Spa, with the possibility of more rain for Qualifying later today...

Verstappen led the way with 2:01.565, followed by Oscar Piastri 1.433s behind. Pierre Gasly trailed by 1.610s.

Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.

The track was cleared and drivers were given the all-clear to return, but no teams went out as heavy rain descended on the track, prompting another red flag.

There are less than 25 minutes remaining of the session as the medical car has taken to the track to assess the condition.

Fans have come prepared, however!

Lance Stroll has spun and crashed into the barriers, prompting a medical car to be deployed, though the Aston Martin driver has confirmed that he is OK.

The Canadian driver appeared to lose control of his car in the very wet conditions, before spinning into the inside wall.

The front wing of his car appears to be damaged but Stroll will feel fortunate that there are no bigger consequences.

Lewis Hamilton has given fellow Brit Lando Norris a chance of beating Max Verstappen to the 2024 Drivers' Championship.

The McLaren driver is hot on Verstappen's tail and after the Dutchman took a 10-place grid penalty in Belgium, has another chance to close the gap.

And Hamilton has not ruled out Norris celebrating winning the top prize at the end of the season.

"It is not impossible but it is a very high, huge challenge and task," he began. "But absolutely not impossible.

"(McLaren) have got two very strong drivers that are able to compete against ultimately, currently in the championship, one car that’s really up there doing the point-scoring. So they’ve got something they can work with there, for sure."

Red Bull were confirmed to have broken the F1 curfew, with teams not allowed to work on their vehicles outside of permitted times.

Both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez would have hoped for more pace at Spa, prompting late work on their cars, but the team have avoided any punishment.

Teams are allowed two exemptions throughout the season, with Red Bull taking their first indiscretion in Belgium.

A statement from the FIA read: "Last night team personnel of the Oracle Red Bull Racing team, who are associated with the operation of the car, were within the confines of the circuit during the eleven-and-a-half-hour period which commenced at 22:00 on 26 July, fourteen and a half hours before the scheduled start time of P3 and ends three hours before the scheduled start time of P3 at 09:30 on 27 July.

"This was the first of the two individual exceptions permitted for the Oracle Red Bull Racing team during the 2024 Formula One Championship season and therefore no action should be taken."

Carlos Sainz's dad was spotted leaving the Williams garage on Friday sparking intense rumours that the Ferrari star has decided his next move.

Charles Leclerc is confused as to how Ferrari can be a half a second behind McLaren during Belgian GP practice.

“It’s been quite a few years now that it’s difficult to understand the picture on the Friday with those generation of cars, but today is even more so," Leclerc said.

"Unfortunately we are just struggling. Compared to McLaren especially, it’s a little bit everywhere.

“We’ve got to focus on ourselves, try to find the right compromise between tomorrow which will be probably wet and Sunday when it will be dry, but we are on it.

“We still have quite a lot of meetings to go through and hopefully we find the best compromise for tomorrow and Sunday. We don’t yet have a clear picture."

Daniel Ricciardo says he feels comfortable in the chaos at Red Bull.

The Aussie could be axed after the Belgian Grand Prix - or promoted to a senior Red Bull seat.

"I kinda just laugh at it," he told the Mirror. "I do take it seriously and I am fighting not only for something better but also just for my seat and my place in the sport. So it does come with a lot of that, but I just enjoy being back in this position and having something to fight for.

"I enjoy the crazy, fun chaos of the Red Bull family and the way they go about their business. It's all I've ever known - chaos in this team feels comfortable, where chaos in another team was quite unsettling. I just feel like I've been here before and I'm okay with it."

Yuki Tsunoda has been hit with a 60-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix.

When told of his incredible punishment by a journalist, the VCARB star replied "Oh, Jesus!"

His plan will now change to helping team-mate Daniel Ricciardo this weekend.

“Normally we perform well in the rain,” Tsunoda explained. “For now, I prefer rain, but any condition, I’ll just focus on what I can help for Daniel — slipstreaming or whatever.”

Lewis Hamilton has stirred the pot with Max Verstappen by calling for the Red Bull driver to act like a world champion.

Hamilton fired a dig at Verstappen by saying: "You have to be a team leader, a team member. Maybe not so much a team leader but more so just always remember you are a teammate with lots of people and you have to act like a world champion."

The Mercedes star was asked what acting like a world champion looks like and he replied: "That's a good question. Not like it was last weekend!"

Good morning and welcome to Express Sport's live coverage of the Belgian Grand Prix!

We have qualifying coming your way from 3pm (BST) and we'll be bringing you all the latest news and updates throughout the day.