Sergio Perez had a poor start from the front row of the grid, in his best race start since Miami earlier this year. This allowed Lewis Hamilton to get alongside into the first corner, taking the position from the Mexican. Charles Leclerc enjoyed his race lead for a few laps but was overtaken by Hamilton with DRS down the long Kemmel Straight on the third lap.
Further back, Lando Norris was under early pressure from championship rival Max Verstappen, who started in P11 after an engine penalty at the start of the weekend. The Brit had started in P4 but lost many positions by running wide in the first corner, kicking up some gravel.
There was an early threat of a safety car when Zhou Guanyu lost power on the third lap. His Sauber coasted around the circuit, but he eventually fixed the issue and continued the race, albeit half a lap down. He eventually retired.
George Russell and Max Verstappen were the first of the lead cars to make the first pit stops of the afternoon on lap 11, swapping their medium tyres for sets of hards. Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, and Oscar Piastri responded the following lap and Charles Leclerc did so the next lap. Piastri looked quick after the stop, making quick work of Russell and Perez during his first laps on the new tyres. Lance Stroll bunched up the pack before making his pit stop a couple of laps later.
Carlos Sainz was the only driver in the top ten that started the race on the alternate strategy, lining up on the grid with a set of hard tyres. He led a good portion of the race as a result before pitting for medium tyres on lap 20. But his middle stint was abnormally short, lasting just 7 laps, putting him out of contention after the second round of stops.
Verstappen spent most of the race under pressure from Lando Norris. After the first pit stops, in which Norris had extended his stint, the McLaren was on the back of the Red Bull. Verstappen was stuck behind Russell and Perez. After Russell overtook Perez, the Red Bull team called Perez into the pits instead of swapping positions on the circuit.
After the second round of pit stops around lap 30, the two rivals took different strategies. Verstappen opted for the medium tyres while Norris took a set of the hards. Norris spent most of the second stint within DRS range of the Red Bull but was unable to get by him.
During his second pit stop, Piastri stopped long in his pit box, giving the front jackman a nudge. This cost him a couple of seconds in the stop, undoing the great pace he had achieved in clean air out front. He was able to retake a position from Leclerc with just ten laps remaining in the race, promoting himself to the podium position.
In the closing stages, Piastri was able to close the gap to the leading Mercedes cars. George Russell was leading the way, taking the gamble on the one-stop strategy, having last pitted on lap 10. Hamilton was within DRS range but was never close enough to mount an attack, having to settle for P2.
But it was all smiles on the Mercedes pit wall as the team scored their first 1-2 finish since Brazil in 2022. Russell was on the top step of the podium after completing a staggering 34 laps on the set of hard tyres. He stood on the podium alongside Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri.
We have arrived at the dreaded summer break, so there will be no racing action in Formula One for the next month. We will return to action in the Netherlands for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 25.
UPDATE: After the race, winner George Russell was disqualified from the race for breaching the minimum weight requirement. The car was 1.5kg below the minimum weight of 798kg after the fuel was removed. This sees Lewis Hamilton promoted to the number one spot, earning the Brit his 105th career victory. Charles Leclerc is promoted to the podium, while further down the field Daniel Ricciardo is promoted to a points-scoring position. The title of this article has been updated from “Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 in Belgium after a fantastic one-stop strategy” to reflect the updated results.
| Pos. | Driver | Laps | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DSQ | 44 | 1:19:57.040 | |||
| 1 | 44 | +0.526 | 25 | ||
| 2 | 44 | +1.173 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 44 | +8.549 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 44 | +9.226 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 44 | +9.850 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 44 | +19.795 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 44 | +43.195 | 7 |  | |
| 8 | 44 | +49.963 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 44 | +52.552 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 44 | +54.926 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 44 | +63.011 | |||
| 12 | 44 | +63.651 | |||
| 13 | 44 | +64.365 | |||
| 14 | 44 | +66.631 | |||
| 15 | 44 | +70.638 | |||
| 16 | 44 | +76.737 | |||
| 17 | 44 | +86.057 | |||
| 18 | 44 | +88.833 | |||
| DNF | 5 |
