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A very unexpected winner on the road who turned out not to have won after all was the headline of Formula 1’s 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, and it wasn’t the only surprise.
Here’s our take on the biggest stars and flops from Spa:
LOSER: GEORGE RUSSELL
Will the knowledge that he drove so well and proved so much with his on-the-road victory temper George Russell’s disappointment at having it taken away?
No, it’ll surely only make it even more frustrating. The fact that it doesn’t really have any meaningful championship consequences and that the watching world saw him win will be zero consolation.
The performance was great evidence of just how good Russell is now becoming, but he didn’t need evidence of that. He needed a win. - Matt Beer
WINNER: LEWIS HAMILTON
It won't be how he would have liked to win, but Hamilton will feel he deserved this one - and rightly so.
He was clearly irked post-race by being railroaded by race circumstance into a two-stopper, feeling he always had tyre life to extend his stints.
Sometimes you do everything more or less right out front and can't win because the race wasn't the race your team thought it was. But sometimes F1 just gives you one back anyway.
That was the case at Spa. And while a post-race disqualification always leaves a sour taste, there shouldn't be a single person questioning the merit of the win, even if it's an inherited one. - Valentin Khorounzhiy
WINNER: OSCAR PIASTRI
McLaren probably should’ve won this, and Piastri was its lead runner in the race again, so there was understandable disappointment on his face in parc ferme - disappointment that his later elevation to second won’t really change.
This was an important intra-team result in the context of the Hungary aftermath, though.
After several days of speculation about whether McLaren might give Lando Norris official number one status to shore up its increasingly realistic title bid, Norris losing out to Max Verstappen on track did that title bid no favours and will surely quell chat about team orders being needed for points purposes for a while. And Piastri outracing Norris on the day showed why McLaren is ultimately right to keep its options open for now. - MB
LOSER: SERGIO PEREZ
When he scraped through Q2 after all and then stuck himself on what became the front row, Perez looked like he’d probably done enough to at least be the ‘ah he’s not so bad, he’ll do’ victor in the fight to be Verstappen’s team-mate for the rest of the year.
Turning that front row start into an eventual seventh probably undid all that.
Now it comes down to whether the flashes of being more on top of the Red Bull that he’s shown lately are enough to convince the team that continuity is better than the risk of a change. - MB
WINNER: CHARLES LECLERC
The Ferrari didn't have it at Spa, not relative to the competition, but Leclerc concealed that for as long as he could - grabbing onto Hamilton for so much of the race and running impressive stints after an equally impressive qualifying effort.
He described fourth as "what I thought would be the best possible result" - he has been proven wrong now - but thought it would come behind two McLarens and one Red Bull (no points for guessing which one).
"The Mercedes, we thought that we were on a par with them. So it's worse than expected."
But while the SF-24 continues to underwhelm and awaits the upgrade that might make F1's 'big three' into a 'big four', Leclerc already pulled off a convincing impression of there being a 'big four' at Spa, before gritting his teeth and hanging on to track position ahead of a fresher-tyred Verstappen (albeit on the unfancied mediums) and a fresher-tyred Norris.
Again, if you got to choose, you wouldn't want to inherit a podium post-race - but this one too will feel earned. - VK
LOSER: LANDO NORRIS
McLaren entered Belgium contending for victory, particularly as Verstappen was set to take a 10-place grid drop. Instead, Piastri finished second and Norris settled for fifth.
A scrappy start cost Norris in the grand prix as he went wide at La Source and subsequently dropped to seventh, which left him battling with Verstappen in the early stages of the race. Hard-tyre runner Carlos Sainz then held that pair up, which cost Norris even more time.
"I just misjudged it, honestly. I just didn't want to get taken out in Turn 1, so I left the gap and just misjudged the exit a little bit," Norris explained.
"I've given away a lot of points over the last three or four races, just because of stupid stuff. Mistakes and bad starts.
"Turn 1 now. I don't know why, it's just silly things, it's not even difficult stuff. It's just Turn 1, trying to stay out of trouble, trying to make sure there's a gap and not get hit."
Another mistake at the Bus Stop chicane before his second pitstop underlined a messy race for Norris, and he ended up not only losing out on a podium - but losing out to title rival Verstappen, who finished six tenths ahead of him. - Samarth Kanal
WINNER: MAX VERSTAPPEN
It's not in the same galaxy as his races here in 2022 and 2023, and there will be a loud alarm bell ringing at the back of his head about how even at a stronghold like this Red Bull couldn't really assert its dominance - but Verstappen was relatively upbeat at the finish, and the championship picture will probably be a big part of that.
With his main title rival starting ahead and ending up a place behind, Verstappen's lead improved to 78 points coming out of Spa despite the engine penalty.
"It's never comfortable," he insisted, but he described the fact rival teams keep taking points off each other as "fantastic".
"Starting P11 I knew that it was always going to be a damage limitation race. Of course, looking at the championship it was still a positive day; I extended my lead where it could've also easily been calculating losses."
It was surely winnable if not for the penalty - he drove well and was never really in clean air for long enough to conclusively suggest he wouldn't have had the pace to control the race. But if 78 points isn't "comfortable" (and honestly, it still feels that it is), it's certainly more comfortable than Red Bull's ever-shrinking constructors' margin. - VK
WINNER: FERNANDO ALONSO
While Lance Stroll cut a sullen figure after labouring to a 12th-place finish on the road at Spa, Alonso pulled off the same one-stop strategy and earned Aston Martin four valuable points.
The two-time champion inevitably lost out to Verstappen early on but lapped, on average, four tenths per lap faster than Stroll during the opening stint on medium tyres.
He switched to hards on lap 14 and finished ninth before being promoted to eighth by Russell’s disqualification.
The new Spa surface (and a wet qualifying day) meant that tyre degradation was something of an unknown going into Sunday - but it turned out better than expected for Alonso.
"We were P12 [on hard tyres] and we were just waiting for a safety car to play into our hands, and then 11 laps to the end we started considering: ‘OK, maybe the safety car isn’t coming, but we’re going to the end’," he explained.
"It was just being very flexible lap by lap judging the conditions, and in the end it was the right call." - SK
LOSER: WILLIAMS
Williams looked deceptively potent in FP1, but was never going to scale those heights for the rest of the weekend. Still, especially now that one car has been removed from the classification ahead, it's clear more was on offer.
"We looked further away than I think we actually were," summed up Alex Albon, 12th after Russell's disqualification. "I think if we had two sets of hards, it would be a different race.
"The ones who put the hard on in the second stint realised how good it was and just stayed out - we only found out how good it was when it was too late [due to running medium-medium in first two stints], and that was our race. Frustrating."
There wasn't a tonne on offer even with Russell's disqualification taken into account, but there will have been a chance to chip away at Haas's 23-point advantage or keep Alpine from doing any points damage.
Constructors' standings (bottom five)
6. RB - 34
7. Haas - 27
8. Alpine - 12
9. Williams - 4
10. Sauber - 0
That chance has been squandered, and while boss James Vowles is confident Williams will get faster soon, does it really have reason to believe it'll be soon enough to make a constructors' impact?
At least Sauber didn't score either, and never really looked like doing so. But this was always supposed to be a tough one for Sauber, and if chips suddenly fall in its favour Williams does not really have a cushion there to be comfortable. - VK
WINNER: ESTEBAN OCON
Alpine came into Sunday having split Pierre Gasly's and Ocon’s configurations - and it was Ocon who benefitted from taking the low-downforce package.
The Haas-bound driver started ninth and finished 10th, before being promoted back up to ninth, to give Alpine a pre-break boost in the form of two points.
Ocon however rued the decision to take a second pitstop for hards with 14 laps remaining as he ended up finishing behind Alonso, who pulled off a one-stop strategy.
"It was very clear that we had to react with the numbers we had in the race. And we had to be flexible with the plan. It was clear that this was what we had to do… but the safe plan - the plan we usually do - unfortunately, it wasn’t the right one."
Yet Ocon’s result came as something of a coup for Alpine as it ensured Williams - which was expected to fare well at this high-speed circuit - didn't score. - SK
