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Lewis Hamilton was visually upset after losing out to teammate George Russell in the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, but insisted a disqualification was the not the way he wanted to win the race.
Hamilton had a super start to the Belgian Grand Prix from third on the grid and passed Sergio Perez following that with a pass on Charles Leclerc to take the lead of the race.
And while Mercedes put their seven-time Formula 1 Champion on the conservative two-stop strategy, Russell who started the race from sixth on the grid was given a radical one-stop strategy.
Kudos to Russell who made his one-stopper work after going long on his Hard tyres in the second stint, but Hamilton was understandably dismayed after the race, as he could not pass his younger teammate despite having better tyres, as passing proved difficult on the day at Spa-Francorchamps.
In parc ferme, Hamilton pointed out that Mercedes asked him to pit when he was adamant his tyres were still good.
Then speaking to Sky Sports F1 afterwards, he added: “Firstly, congrats to the team, congrats to George. This will be a huge plus for everyone back at the factory.
“We didn’t expect this weekend to be where we are, especially after Friday, when we were a second off. Amazing work overnight on Friday night, and to get a one-two going into the summer break is pretty spectacular.
“I wasn’t expecting us to be as strong as we were,” Hamilton admitted, as Mercedes did not seem to be contenders this weekend at Spa.
Hamilton: Russell wasn’t really in my race
“It felt great to get in the lead. It was a bit of a shock at the end but we’ll take that in house and move forward,” the Briton said after being disadvantaged with the strategy.
“George wasn’t really in my race for most of it. And so if the strategy had been right, he wouldn’t have been in my race. So we wouldn’t have been having that but it’s great that at the end we do have cars that are competing.
“And we can all go away with our heads held high into the summer break and hopefully come back stronger into the second half.
“It is what it is. I’ll move forward. I’ll go into my break and have a good time,” the 39-year-old said.
Mercedes Toto Wolff was asked about Hamilton’s race, he said: “I’d like to have two winners today but we had to cover Leclerc and Norris, because we would have been undercut, and that was the call.
“George had nothing to lose. We were P5, the one-stop and the two-stop were showing P5, so we kept him out,” the Austrian explained.
Hamilton: I feel for George
But after that, Russell’s car was found to be underweight and was disqualified as a result with Hamilton inheriting the win.
In Mercedes‘ race report, Hamilton delivered a different tone, he said: “It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away from today.
“The car was feeling good, and we had much better pace than we expected. There were several cars that seemed similar in terms of performance but once we had got ahead, we were able to maintain that position.
“We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us,” Hamilton went on echoing Wolff’s post race explanation.
“George was able to make the one-stop work and, although I got close to him in the final few laps, I was unable to get past in the dirty air.
“I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races.
“It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently. Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity,” the outgoing Mercedes driver concluded.
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