Russell denies Hamilton in surprise Mercedes 1-2 at Spa

Mercedes took a surprise 1-2 in Formula 1's Belgian Grand Prix with George Russell denying Lewis Hamilton via a sensationally ambitious one-stopper.

The Mercedes cars ran 1-2 in the final third of the race with the team waving on a fight between the one-stopping Russell and two-stopping Hamilton whose strategies converged in the last laps.

UPDATE: Russell stripped of Belgian GP win after Mercedes' 'genuine error'

Hamilton had DRS on Russell with four laps to go but he couldn't get close enough to make a move, with Russell finding impressive traction out of the key corners to keep Hamilton at bay.

Russell managed to hold off Hamilton, by just over half a second across the line, to claim his second victory of 2024 and third grand prix win in F1. 

An unexpected victory

Few expected Mercedes to have the edge on Sunday given McLaren and Red Bull were predicted to battle for victory. Even though Max Verstappen was starting down in 11th place, without the kind of car advantage that's helped him overcome grid drops in 2022 and 2023 at Spa to win, the Mercedes drivers expected Verstappen to "come through quickly" in the race.

So too the McLaren pair, who were expected to be far stronger in the race than the fourth and fifth places on the grid they took in qualifying.

But that didn't transpire on Sunday with third place starter Hamilton moving into second place ahead of Sergio Perez into La Source on the opening lap behind polesitter Charles Leclerc.

And Hamilton soon had his 2025 Ferrari team-mate in his sights, passing him before the braking zone into Les Combes on lap three of 44.

Hamilton didn't exactly waltz away from Leclerc thereafter but he kept a healthy couple of seconds buffer out front. That kept him out of an immediate undercut threat but in the end team-mate Russell proved to be his biggest foil.

Russell ran an unconventional but highly-effective one-stop strategy that boosted him from fighting for fourth and fifth into leading most of the second half of the race.

Two-stopping Hamilton chipped away at Russell's leading advantage after his second pitstop and caught his team-mate with four laps to go but couldn't find a way through.

Piastri third-best

McLaren's Oscar Piastri caught both Mercedes drivers by the end of the race but had lost too much time earlier in the race stuck behind the likes of Leclerc and lost two seconds with a slow stop that wasn't helped by Piastri overshooting his marks slightly.

His pace in clear air had looked better than any other driver but he had to settle for third place ahead of Leclerc, who kept both Verstappen and Lando Norris at bay.

Norris had a scrappy run to sixth place which included an opening lap brush with the gravel on the exit of La Source, having just been passed by Piastri.

Carlos Sainz passed Perez with six laps to go into Les Combes to take seventh place. Perez ultimately fell to eighth place and made a late pitstop for softs to claim the fastest lap bonus point - which he did to draw a close to a potentially career-defining weekend for the Mexican with his Red Bull future in doubt.

Fernando Alonso took ninth for Aston Martin ahead of Esteban Ocon who beat Daniel Ricciardo to the final point.

Zhou Guanyu was the only retirement of the race. Having briefly survived a power loss that left him crawling around the track on lap three, Zhou had to retire his Sauber three laps later with a suspected hydraulic problem.