George Russell took a remarkable win at the Belgian Grand Prix, narrowly beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton with an unexpected one-stop strategy, while Mercedes continued their impressive Formula 1 revival by taking first and second places.
In a race where other teams were tipped as favourites due to rain-induced qualifying and Max Verstappen's penalty that left the top of the grid mixed up, Hamilton's blistering start from third place and a bold strategy from “tyre guru” Russell made Mercedes the team to beat.
Hamilton, who had been in the lead for a long time, changed his tyres twice, while Russell only changed them once, and the Mercedes teammates who had different strategies ran in first and second respectively going into the tense final stage. The latter took the track position, but his tyres were 16 laps older than Russell's.
But Russell, who had called on team radio for a one-stop strategy midway through the race to improve his position from a significant fifth-place deficit, overcame Hamilton's relentless pressure to take his third career win and finished second in the last four races.
After 19 months without a win in F1, Mercedes have won three of their last four races to turn a season that was in danger of ending in massive disappointment.
For a more accessible video player, please use the Chrome browser.
In an exciting opening lap, Lewis Hamilton overtook Sergio Perez to take second place.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri finished third, just 1.1 seconds behind Russell, with the top three crossing the line almost head-to-head.
Piastri, who was fiercely contested for the race winner and lap one, was ahead of Russell, but like Hamilton, he stopped twice and ceded track position to the Mercedes who had been running for a long time. The Hungarian GP winner's hopes of a back-to-back race win were further jeopardised at his second stop when he lost time while spending too much time in the pit box.
Back on the track, Piastri caught and overtook pole-place Ferrari's Charles Leclerc towards the end of the final lap to take third place, but ultimately ran out of time to compete directly with the two Mercedes cars.
Lando Norris again started ahead of Piastri, but lost distance at the exit of La Source and again fell behind his teammate at the first corner.
For a more accessible video player, please use the Chrome browser.
In an exciting opening lap, Lewis Hamilton overtook Sergio Perez to take second place.
Behind Verstappen, who was recovering from the first stop, Norris could not find a way to overtake his title rival despite having the faster car, with Red Bull finishing fifth and McLaren sixth.
Verstappen thus extended his title lead over Norris to 78 points, two ahead of the summer break.
But Red Bull's constructors' title lead over McLaren was once again stretched to just 43 points behind the former champions as Sergio Perez was forced to drop from second on the grid to eighth behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
Fernando Alonso fought back to take ninth for Aston Martin, while Esteban Ocon beat RB's Daniel Ricciardo for the final Alpine points title after the Frenchman's strong weekend performance.
More to come…
Formula 1 is back after the summer break. The Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, August 23-25, is live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month membership – no contract, cancel anytime
